by: antonella artuso
ontario reported a new daily record in covid-19 cases of 4,736 thursday as the doug ford government ponders next steps.
“ontario is reporting 4,736 cases of #covid19 and nearly 65,600 tests completed,” health minister christine elliott posted to twitter. “locally, there are 1,188 new cases in toronto, 983 in peel, 526 in york region, 342 in ottawa, 216 in durham and 215 in niagara.”
anthony dale, president of the ontario hospital association (oha), said 653 adults with covid-19 are in intensive care beds, including nine adults treated in repurposed pediatric spaces.
another 29 deaths were blamed on the virus, 57 in just two days, although none in long-term care where almost all residents have been vaccinated.
ontario will release new covid-19 modelling friday.
doris grinspun, ceo of the registered nurses’ association of ontario (rnao), said after the last crackdown that the ford government would have no option but to consider a curfew if the stay-at-home order didn’t change behaviours.
as of wednesday night, ontario had put almost 3.53 million doses of covid-19 vaccines into residents’ arms.
just under 340,000 people out of a provincewide population of 14.7 million have had the two doses required to be considered fully vaccinated.