Ontario confirms 387 new cases of coronavirus, 61 more deaths
Posted May 5, 2020 10:56 am.
Last Updated May 5, 2020 5:55 pm.
This article is more than 5 years old.
Ontario confirms 387 new cases of novel coronavirus on Tuesday, a slight increase from the 370 new cases reported on Monday.
Sixty-one more people have died, bringing the total to 1,361.
Of the 1,361 deaths, 697 were from long-term care homes.
The provincial total of confirmed cases now stands at 18,319, with 69.8 per cent of those considered resolved.
Meanwhile, Premier Doug Ford is blaming some of Ontario regional medical officers for the province’s inconsistent rate of COVID-19 testing.
Ford says some of the top doctors are not ordering enough testing in their regions and that needs to change.
At his daily briefing Tuesday, the premier declined to name which regions and which medical officers he believed weren’t performing enough tests.
Ford says “they know who they are.”
The province reported Tuesday that 10,654 tests were completed in the previous 24 hours, the lowest total in five days.
Ford’s government had set a target of processing 16,000 tests a day.
Ontario had been testing well below its capacity, and earlier this month Ford called for that to be ramped up. On Monday, the premier said his province is now conducting the most tests per day in Canada, both in terms of volume and per capita.
The premier said Tuesday that after the pandemic is over, his government may reconsider the current public health system, which employs 34 separate chief medical officers of health in different regions.
“It’s a lot easier to have one person in control than 34 people in control,” Ford said.
As the province slowly begins reopening its battered economy, Ford says he plans to talk with the rest of Canada’s premiers about creating a national plan for COVID-19 contact tracing.
Ford says he intends to raise the issue with the leaders during a conference call later this week.
He says individual provinces are currently handling their own contact tracing but a federal plan is essential.
Ford says Ontario has ramped up its contact tracing efforts in recent days to contain COVID-19.
The provincial government also announced $12 million in funding to expand online and virtual mental health supports.
They can be accessed safely from home where you take an assessment and speak with a therapist.
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