Toronto’s mayor, top doctor and emergency management boss announced they want the metropolis to remain under Ontario’s toughest restrictions until at least March 9, two weeks longer than planned.
“I have never been as worried about the future as I am today,” said medical officer of health Dr. Eileen de Villa.
She said there are 56 cases with variants of concern — predominantly the one first identified in the United Kingdom — in Toronto, up from 33 a week ago.
Another 283 cases have screened positive for being variants of concern and lab work is underway to make the final confirmation, de Villa added.
She said the city faces a “deceptively dangerous situation,” as overall daily case counts have been trending lower lately.
“Today’s variant count is the tip of an iceberg,” de Villa said.
“By the time the confirmed case counts are big enough to shock us, it will be too late to do anything. We will be in a third wave as bad as anything we’ve been through thus far.”
The top doctor in Peel Region, a COVID-19 hot spot west of Toronto, joined de Villa in asking Ontario’s chief medical officer of health for a two-week extension to the tougher rules
Ontario recorded 847 new infections Wednesday, along with 10 more deaths and 23 fewer people in hospital than the day before.
New modelling out of Quebec suggests a more contagious COVID-19 variant could dominate in the Montreal area in a matter of weeks.
As of Wednesday, there were 16 confirmed variant cases in Quebec, including 13 cases of the U.K. mutation, and another 135 suspected cases.
Quebec added 14 more deaths from past dates, but no new ones, in its update. It reported 800 new infections and five fewer COVID-19 patients in hospital than a day earlier.
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