Ontario is reporting 3,369 new cases of COVID-19 today and 29 more deaths linked to the virus.
Health Minister Christine Elliott says there are 1,050 new cases in Toronto, 819 in Peel Region, 286 in York Region, 158 in Ottawa and 157 in Durham Region.
The province says 2,152 people are hospitalized with COVID-19 — 900 are in intensive care and 637 are on a ventilator.
Ontario says 107,700 doses of a COVID-19 vaccine were administered since Friday’s report for a total of 5,247,684 shots given in the province.
The daily numbers come hours after an independent commission released its report examining Ontario’s COVID-19 response in long-term care homes.
The scathing, 322-page report to the government called for an overhaul of the sector.
The report said the province was ill-prepared for the pandemic, despite lessons it should have learned from the SARS epidemic.
Long-term Care Minister Merrilee Fullerton issued a statement in response to the report, thanking the three commissioners for their efforts and pledging a thorough review of their findings.
She said many of the improvements called for in their report align with steps the government has already taken, asserting the situation in the province’s long-term care facilities has improved in recent months.
Nonetheless, she said, the harm to the province’s seniors is clear.
“There’s no question that residents and staff at long-term care homes and their families were disproportionally impacted by COVID-19,” Fullerton said in the statement. “As I said in my testimony to the commission, we cannot let their experience be in vain — and we won’t. We will continue to work with our partners across the sector to address the commission’s recommendations as we continue to build a safe and modern long-term care sector that respects the dignity of our seniors and the staff that care for them.”
