Toronto could see 2,500 daily COVID-19 cases by end of April, medical officer of health says

Toronto’s top doctor says that at the current rate of transmission the city could see 2,500 new COVID-19 cases per day by the end of April.

Medical officer of health Dr. Eileen de Villa says the surging rates are being driven by more transmissible variants of concern in the community.

De Villa says the current record for daily cases in Toronto is 1,642 and was set during the second wave of the pandemic.

She says the city is vaccinating more people against the virus but that still won’t be enough to offset the impact of the variants.

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De Villa says people are moving less since the new stay-at-home order has come into effect, but not in every part of the city.

Overall, the province is reporting 4,401 new cases of COVID-19 today, and 15 new deaths due to the virus.

Health Minister Christine Elliott said there are 1,282 new cases in Toronto, 772 in Peel Region, 564 in York Region, 339 in Ottawa and 224 in Durham.

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Ontario reports 4,401 COVID-19 cases, another record of ICU patients

The province said it has conducted 47,929 tests since the last daily report.

In total, 1,646 people are hospitalized in Ontario due to COVID-19, including 619 in intensive care, and 408 people are on ventilators.

Ontario has administered 74,722 doses of the vaccine since its last daily update, with 3,214,465 vaccines given in total.

The latest figures bring the total number of COVID-19 cases in Ontario to 391,009, with 7,567 deaths, and 348,684 cases resolved.