Ontario reports 948 more COVID-19 cases as 7-day average hits new high

Ontario reported another 948 cases of COVID-19 on Monday, as the provincial government commits to a new standard that would see long-term care residents receive an average of four hours of direct care every day.

"To our residents and to their families and caregivers, four hours a day will make a world of difference," said Premier Doug Ford on Monday.

Ford also returned to the idea of at least partially reopeningareas currently under modified stage 2 rules in Ontario's four hot spots: Toronto, Peel, York and Ottawa.

He said health officials are working on a plan to allow more openbusinesses in those areas to open again.

This morning's newly reported cases remain concentrated in the samefour public health units:

• Toronto: 315
• Peel Region: 269
• York Region: 81
• Ottawa: 64

Several other areas also saw double-digit increases:

• Durham Region: 32
• Hamilton: 30
• Simcoe Muskoka: 28
• Niagara: 24
• Windsor: 23
• Halton Region: 19
• Waterloo Region: 19
• Middlesex London: 11
• Eastern Ontario: 11

Possibility of reopening shuttered businesses

Ford said Monday that health officials areworking on a reopening plan that's set to go before his cabinet as early as Monday.

Last week, he revealed that he was asking the province's health experts to come up with a way to allow more businesses to reopen in the areas hardest hit by the novel coronavirus.

Toronto, Peel Region and Ottawa were all temporarily rolled back into a modified version of Stage 2 of the province's COVID-19 recovery strategy on Oct. 10. That means the 28-day period of this initial rollback for the three regionsis set to expire this coming Saturday.

According to its COVID-19 monitoring dashboard, Toronto's seven-day average of new daily cases is about 327. Further, there is a city-wide 4.6 per cent positivity rate for tests, considerably above the short-term goal of less than threeper cent.

In Peel, new daily cases have continued on an upward trend.

York Region, the only other public health unit currently in a modified Stage 2, entered more than a week later on Oct. 19.

"I listen to the health[experts], I listen to the folks who have small businesses, and there has to be a happy balance," Ford said on Monday on the possible reopening.

Toronto Mayor John Tory'soffice immediatelyissued a letter, co-signed by other GTA mayors, supporting the idea.

In it, Tory wrote thathe wants businesses "to be able to reopen safely, and to remain open."

Speaking later on Monday afternoon, Dr. Barbara Yaffe, the province'sassociate chief medical officer of health, said she could provide no specifics on the plan since it was still being developed by the province's health table.

"I don't think anything is inevitable," she said when asked if all four regions would have their restrictions lifted.

Yaffe did comment specifically on Ottawa, which has seen a lower number of daily cases lately, calling that a "very hopeful sign" for the city.

7-day average reaches all-time high

The totalis a decline from those recorded over the weekend, with 1,015 and 977 on Saturday and Sunday, respectively, but come as the province's network of labs completed just more than 27,900 tests, far from its daily capacity of about 45,000. Public health officials said in September that they hoped to be processing upward of 68,000 tests per day by mid-November.

The seven-day average of new daily cases, a measure that limits noise in the data to provide a clearer picture of longer-term trends, has reached about 919, the highest at any point in the pandemic.

There are nowsome 8,096confirmed, active cases of COVID-19 provincewide, the first time that number has topped 8,000 and by far themost at any one time since the first case was confirmed in late January.

After reaching a second-wave high of 350 over the weekend, the number of people in Ontario hospitals with confirmed, active cases of the illness dropped to 328 in today's report. The province noted, however, that about 40 hospitals did not submit data from their daily bed censuses a common happenstance on Mondays so the real figure of infected people in hospitalis likelyhigher.

Of those, 75 are being treated in intensive care units and 45 are on ventilators.

Ontario also added seven new deaths to its official COVID-19 toll, which now stands at 3,152. Some 2,016, or about 64 per cent, of those deaths were residents in long-term care facilities.

Currently, there are known outbreaks of COVID-19 in 74 of Ontario's 626 long-term care homes.

4-hour standard of care

The new standard of long-term care is something advocates and health unions have long been pressing for, and was also one of the recommendations released by Ontario's Long-Term Care COVID-19 Commission.

Long-term care residents currently receive an average of 2.75 hours of direct care per day.

"That'sover 31 per cent increased care for our loved ones," said Ford on Monday, adding that "thousands and thousands" more workers will need to be hired in order to get there.

A provincial release also lays out a timeline for hitting the new target by 2024-2025.

The Ontario Health Coalition, a public-health advocacy network,says thatwhile it ishappy with the new standard, the "timeline that [the province]hasgiven is so long that it is meaningless for the people who are suffering and dying in long-term care now."

They're calling for more concrete hiring and training to occur sooner to increase the amount of care residents are receiving now.

Have more questions about COVID-19 in Ontario? These CBC News stories will help:

What do the latest modelling numbers suggest about the spread of COVID-19 in Ontario?

Experts are forecasting the growth to slow, but to remain in the range of 800-1,200 new cases per day

How are hospitals coping?

CBC Toronto's Mike Crawley has new reporting on data showing hospitals are back to pre-COVID levels of overcrowding

Why are fewer people dying during the second wave of COVID-19?

Experts say there are a range of factors, but warn there's still cause for concern

Why are there fewer COVID-19 deaths during Ontario's second wave?

4 years ago

Duration 0:31

Epidemiologist Raywat Deonandan says we are seeing a reduced number of COVID-19 deaths during the second wave because the long-term care population is better protected, but he warns that is starting to change.