Dr. David Williams, Ontario’s chief medical officer of health, said he is “cautiously optimistic” about the community spread in the province, after seeing a levelling of the curve, but the province hasn’t started seeing the curve come down the other side.
He added the province is looking at what the metrics would be to look at loosening any public health measures.
“We do want to see evidence that the community wide transmission has been curtailed significantly,” Dr. Williams said. “We want to make sure that our case contact management is back into a containment type modality.”
“We’re not there yet…It’s going to take about two weeks to say if we’ve had an impact.”
He added the daily case counts will need to be “a lot less than 500…in the 200s or lower.”
Dr. Barbara Yaffe, associate medical officer of health, spoke about the continued outbreaks in long-term care facilities in Ontario.
According to data from the Ministry of Long-term Care, as of 3:30 p.m. yesterday there were 138 known outbreaks in long-term care homes, with about 20 per cent of cases in the province from these settings. There have been 1,618 positive cases in residents and 399 resident deaths. There have also been 867 cases in long-term care facility staff and one death.
Quebec
Quebec has seen 1,041 COVID-19 deaths in the province, of which 850 were residents in long-term care facilities.
Premier Francois Legault said the staffing shortages are being rectified as time progresses.
Legault also indicated the province is discussing how to open up Quebec’s economy and lift some of the restrictions, particularly plans related to restarting school and daycares. He also does not expect students to return to school over the summer month.
