These are the Toronto neighbourhoods with the highest rates of COVID-19

With COVID-19 cases rising in the province, Toronto has consistently reported more than 100 new infections per day since the beginning of December.

On Tuesday, Toronto reported 163 new COVID-19 cases, so we took a look at different neighbourhoods in the city to see where the virus is spreading.

Toronto Public Health has an interactive neighbourhood map that displays infection rates throughout the city. The data has been available since May 2020 in an effort to show how infection rates are unequally distributed.

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Low-income neighbourhoods and those with higher proportions of essential workers have been hit the hardest throughout the pandemic. But some neighbourhoods initially labelled COVID-19 hotspots have seen infection rates improve thanks to community outreach and high vaccine uptake.

These are the Toronto neighbourhoods with the highest rates of COVID-19 per 100,000 from November 16 to December 6:

• Humber Heights-Westmount has the highest with 219 cases per 100,000
• Playter Estates-Danforth is second highest with 192 cases per 100,000
• Old East York has a case rate of 184 per 100,000

Between October 23 and November 12, several neighbourhoods had zero COVID-19 cases per 100,000. Playter Estates-Danforth was one of those neighbourhoods, now reporting the second highest case rate in the city. Currently, there is only one neighbourhood in the city with a case rate of zero per 100,000: Bayview Woods-Steeles.

These are the Toronto neighbourhoods with the lowest COVID-19 case rates per 100,000 from November 16 to December 6:

• Bayview Woods-Steeles with a case rate of zero per 100,000
• Woodbine Corridor has a rate of eight cases per 100,000
• Guildwood has a rate of 10 cases per 100,000

“Some neighbourhoods have higher COVID-19 rates because the people who live in them face higher risk due to their living and working conditions, including being essential workers who cannot work from home, lack of paid sick days, job insecurity, crowded housing, and taking crowded public transportation,” the City of Toronto says on the interactive map.

Toronto Public Health

On Tuesday, Ontario’s COVID-19 Science Advisory Table released new modelling for the province. Even without factoring in the new Omicron variant, cases, hospitalizations, and ICU admissions will continue to rise in the province, the modelling shows. Without factoring in Omicron, daily case counts could potentially reach 3,000.

The province announced on Tuesday that it would extend the pause on lifting capacity limits in high-risk settings.

According to Toronto Public Health, 88.8% of Toronto residents aged 12 and over have received at least one dose of COVID-19 vaccine.