‘Stay tuned’: Ford to announce decision on potential lockdown Thursday
Posted March 30, 2021 1:35 pm.
Last Updated March 31, 2021 6:09 pm.
One day after Ontario’s Premier admitted that “everything is on the table” when it comes to the possibility of another lockdown, Doug Ford says a decision is expected on Thursday.
“You’ll hear an announcement tomorrow,” he said, without providing further details. “I’m very, very concerned to see the cases go up.”
Ford has not specified what new measures his government is considering, if any, but said he will consult the province’s top doctor before making a decision while urging people to not gather for Easter.
“I am extremely concerned about the situation that we’re seeing and the numbers going up… I am concerned with the age group right now with younger people in ICU,” said Ford on Tuesday.
“Everything is on the table. Be prepared. I am saying don’t make plans for Easter. I won’t hesitate to lock things down if I have to. I did it before, I’ll do it again… without people’s health we won’t have an economy.”
On March 19, the Ford government announced that restaurants operating in “Red-Control” and “Orange-Restrict” would be able to open with 50 percent capacity and a maximum of 50 and 100 people indoors.
Outdoor patios at bars and restaurants for public health units in “Grey-Lockdown,” such as Peel and Toronto, have since been allowed to operate with members of the same household.
The province has since planned to further relax restrictions under “Grey-Lockdown” and allow for barbers and nail salons to reopen under capacity on April 12.
Outdoor fitness classes are also now permitted.
Ontario reported 2,333 new cases of COVID-19 Wednesday and 15 more deaths linked to the virus.
Those figures follow weeks of rising case counts as more contagious variants of the virus spread across the province.
The province also hit a new high Wednesday for the number of COVID-19 patients in intensive care units.
The president of the Ontario Hospital Association (OHA), Anthony Dale, tweeted Wednesday that there are now 421 COVID patients in ICU beds across the province.
It marks the highest number of COVID patients in critical care since the pandemic began last year.
The Ontario Medical Association (OMA) is calling on every region in the province to go back one stage in the colour-coded pandemic framework.
COVID-19 infection rates have been rising for weeks, fueled by the spread of more transmissible variants of the virus.
RELATED: New Ontario COVID data indicates 3rd wave health care burden will be worst yet
Dale said 46 patients were admitted to intensive care on Monday – the highest one-day number of admissions in the second and third wave.
He revealed that if the trend continues, patient transfers will be running “24-7” to ensure they receive life-saving care, and more surgeries will be cancelled, adding to the current backlog of 250,000 procedures.
“I am very concerned about the breakdown in social cohesion and the understanding of the risk and the sacrifice that is still needed to get us all through this safely together and without unnecessary death and harm and further massive disruption to hospital care,” Dale said on Tuesday.
It also comes as infections increase in Ontarians aged 20-39.
According to the province’s latest round of epidemiological data, the province reported 816 new cases in people within that age group. On Tuesday, the number was 789 of Ontario’s 2,336 new cases.
The day before, there were 731 cases in people aged 20-39.
Cabinet was set to meet late Wednesday to consult with the province’s top doctor and look at new COVID-19 projections before making a decision, Health Minister Christine Elliott said.
“I anticipate (that) is going to be a discussion that will take some time because we need to take the time to come to the right conclusions,” she said.
Health Minister Elliott has defended the government’s approach saying this “isn’t business as usual” when referring to the recently announced relaxing of restrictions.
“We do have the framework in place. We are following the measures and we do have the emergency brake if we need to use it,” she said.
RELATED: Ontario bracing for 1.5M doses of Pfizer vaccine by end of April, Moderna shipment delayed
“We’re keeping a very close eye on the situation across the province of Ontario and if we need to take action and put on the emergency brake we won’t hesitate to do that.”
“Ornge,” the province’s air ambulance service, said Monday that between Jan. 1 and March 25, at least 601 patients were transferred to different hospitals to help address the pandemic capacity crunch.
The latest data from a group of scientists advising the province on the pandemic show people infected with variants in Ontario are more likely to be hospitalized and die, concluding that the variants will place a “considerably higher burden” on the health-care system than the second wave of infections.
“Right now in Ontario, the pandemic is completely out of control,” said Dr. Peter Juni, the table’s scientific director.
The report by the Ontario COVID-19 Science Advisory looked at 26,314 people who tested positive for COVID-19 in Ontario between Feb. 7 and March 11.
More than 9,000 of them were infected with a variant of concern, and the study found those patients were 62 percent more likely to be hospitalized, 114 percent more likely to end up in an intensive care unit, and 40 percent more likely to die from the virus.
Those findings are similar to studies on variants and hospitalizations from other countries such as the United Kingdom and Denmark.
The report noted that as of March 28, more infectious variants of concern accounted for 67 percent of all infections, and the variant known as B.1.1.7 that was first detected in the U.K. makes up 90 percent of variant cases.
The study also found that 46 percent of intensive care admissions between March 15 and March 21 were people aged 59 and younger, compared with 30 percent of admissions between Dec. 14 and Dec. 20.
Meanwhile, vaccine supply shortage forced a public health unit in a COVID-19 hot spot to close three vaccination clinics.
York Region said the clinics – including Canada’s Wonderland site that opened Monday – would close from April 2 to 5 due to delayed Moderna vaccine shipments.
RELATED: Toronto lags behind province in vaccinating those 80-and-up
Premier Ford blamed the shortage issue on the federal government.
“We’re putting these mass vaccination centers up, a ton of effort, a ton of resources, a ton of people going there, and all of a sudden, bang, now we have to close it down again, up at Wonderland,” Ford said in the legislature on Tuesday.
“When can we count on a consistent volume of vaccines from the federal government? That’s what it comes down to.”
Halton Region, another GTA health unit, announced Tuesday it would move ahead with offering vaccinations to people aged 65 and older starting March 31, ahead of the provincial schedule.
NDP Leader Andrea Horwath said the government hasn’t done enough to prevent people from getting severely ill as the third wave has taken hold.
She said she expects the government to announce a new lockdown on Thursday, but said the government should be taking action immediately.
“I don’t know why we’re waiting for the cabinet to have a conversation about politics versus public health,” she said.
Canada-wide surge not slowing down
Canada’s chief public health officer says COVID-19 variants are driving a weeks-long spike in new cases and hospitalizations as the third wave of the pandemic continue to surge.
Doctor Theresa Tam says a 64 percent increase in the number of COVID-19 variant cases over the past week marks the “most concerning” development.
“New variant case numbers represent the tip of the iceberg,” said Tam.
“There are thousands more cases that have screened positive for problematic mutations.”
Tam says an average of more than 2,200 COVID-19 patients were in hospital last week, with more than 660 in intensive care, representing week-over-week increases of six percent and 14 percent respectively.
With files from The Canadian Press
