Update:
Today, Dr. David Williams, Ontario’s chief medical officer of health, has made recommendations that over the next 28 days, the Toronto, Ottawa and Peel Regions step down to a modified Stage 2 level.
This includes continuing to limit indoor and outdoor public gatherings, no indoor dining permitted in restaurants, the closure of gyms and fitness facilities, and closing casinos and gaming establishments.
He said that had the public adhered to public health recommendations (physical distancing, wearing masks in public, etc.), additional public health measures would not have been necessary.
Adalsteinn Brown, dean of the Dalla Lana School of Public Health at the University of Toronto, said that Ontario's positive test rate is currently over 2 per cent, and the curve continues to increase in steepness as confirmed case numbers are higher than previously projected.
The province has also seen a 249 per cent growth rate in hospitalizations over the last three weeks.
These statistics are not universally spread throughout the province. These steep indicators are most apparent in Ontario's hot spots.
"At this point of growth in the epidemic curve, there is not the opportunity to either test more or contact trace more as a way to suppress or control the epidemic at this point," Brown said. "It really requires public health interventions to break that chain of transmission, and allow the numbers to come back down where case and contact tracing, and testing become very critical."
He said that while children can transmit the virus very easily, schools don't appear to be the source of many current outbreaks. Schools will remain open.
Original information:
Dr. David Williams, Chief Medical Officer of Health; Dr. Dirk Huyer, Chief Coroner for Ontario and Coordinator of the Provincial Outbreak Response; and Adalsteinn (Steini) Brown, Dean of the Dalla Lana School of Public Health at the University of Toronto, will hold a media briefing on COVID-19.
The announcement is expected to begin at 1 p.m. from Queen's Park.
Village Media will carry the livestream once it begins, so please stay tuned.
