Two Ontario regions identified among Canada's coronavirus hotspots

Jun 30 2020, 4:33 pm

Federal data shows there are two regions in Ontario that are still considered hotspots for  COVID-19, even though Canada’s case numbers are steadily declining.

On Monday, Canada’s health officials released updated modelling projections on virus spread and containment across the country.

A list of regions were named in Canada as having the highest number of cases per population in the last two weeks, of which two were in Ontario — Windsor-Essex and Peel Region.

Other hotspots mentioned were in parts of Saskatchewan and Montreal.

On Monday, Ontario health officials reported 257 new cases, with 177 coming from Windsor-Essex, as the province began targeted testing of migrant farm workers.

Ontario Health Minister Christine Elliott said those high numbers are due to “extensive testing” of temporary workers over the weekend, with Sunday seeing 27,000 tests.

On Tuesday, 99 news cases (63%) in Ontario came from Toronto, York, and Peel.

Canada’s Chief Public Health Officer, Dr. Theresa Tam, said that the pandemic has exposed vulnerabilities in crowded settings such as long-term care homes, meat plants, and congregate housing facilities where many agricultural workers live when in Canada.

During Monday’s data update, Tam noted that when it comes to flattening the curve, Canada has fared better and done it faster than a number of other countries such as the UK, Italy, and the US.

She noted that other countries such as South Korea and Japan have demonstrated “strong epidemic control” to keep their curves flatter overall.

And in Canada, the number of new daily cases, hospitalizations, and deaths has been “steadily declining.”

To date, Canada has a total of 103, 918 cases with 67,178 recovered, and 8,566 reported deaths.

Clarrie FeinsteinClarrie Feinstein

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