Ontario reported 1,087 new COVID-19 cases and 13 new deaths on Sunday.
Most new cases were seen in the Greater Toronto Area, including 344 in Toronto, 156 in Peel Region and 122 in York Region, Ontario Health Minister Christine Elliott said.
Sunday is the fourth straight day in which daily case counts have topped 1,000.
The province also reported there are more than 400 variants of concern in Ontario.
There are 391 cases of the B117 variant, the one first detected in the United Kingdom, nine cases of the B.1.351 variant, the one first detected in South Africa, and one case of the P.1 variant, the one first detected in Brazil.
As for new deaths, four are among residents in long-term care homes.
The additional deaths reported on Sunday bring the total number of COVID-19-related fatalities since the pandemic began to 6,861.
The number of patients in hospital with COVID-19 sits at 660, a slight decrease from 699 seen on Saturday.
Of that number, 277 were being treated in ICU and the number of people on ventilators remained at 181, according to the health ministry.
Ontario's network of labs processed 48,200 test samples in the past 24 hours, which pushed the province's positivity rate up to 2.7, Elliott said.
As of Saturday, 556,533 doses of the COVID-19 vaccines have been administered.
Reopening plans 'shortsighted,' doctor says
Meanwhile, a doctor who was demoted after he spoke out about the province's handling of the pandemic expressed concern on Sunday about Ontario's reopening plans.
Dr. Brooks Fallis, a critical care physician, said in an interview on CBC's Rosemary Barton Live that he believes Ontario is headed for a third wave amid the rise in variants of concern, and that not enough is being done to combat it.
"I think we're doing really everything too quickly," Fallis said.
"I think we should be taking a real pause across the province and across the country to realize how serious the implications of these variants are."
Along with variants being more transmissible and potentially more deadly, Fallis said there is potential for immune evasion for some strains. That means if a person contracted COVID-19 once, that person could get it again.
Once a variant of concern is established, particularly the variant first detected in the United Kingdom, it's very hard to contain, according to Fallis.
From an economic perspective, Fallis said the reopening plans are "shortsighted," noting that the variants will "explode" in the population and lead right back to a lockdown.
"I don't really believe that it helps businesses to give them a short period of reopening, only to close them for longer because we open the door to the new variants."
Fallis has been publicly critical of the province's pandemic response, something he has said led to a demotion earlier this year as interim medical director of critical care at the William Osler Health System.
Both his employer and Premier Doug Ford's office deny that claim.
Fallis has said speaking out and advocating for a better response will meaningfully save lives and change the outcome of the pandemic, something he says is a physician's obligation.
https://news.google.com/__i/rss/rd/articles/CBMiTGh0dHBzOi8vd3d3LmNiYy5jYS9uZXdzL2NhbmFkYS90b3JvbnRvL29udGFyaW8tb21uaWJ1cy1mZWJydWFyeS0yMS0xLjU5MjIxMjTSASBodHRwczovL3d3dy5jYmMuY2EvYW1wLzEuNTkyMjEyNA?oc=5
2021-02-21 17:01:12Z
52781393106117
Tidak ada komentar:
Posting Komentar