Ontario extends state of emergency by 2 weeks as number of COVID-19 cases now 1,706

Ontario Premier Doug Ford hasextended the provincial state of emergencyby two weeks as his government continues to grapple with a rising number of COVID-19 cases.

The provinceconfirmed 351 new cases of COVID-19 on Monday, bringing the provincial tally to 1,706 the largest single-day increase since the outbreak began.

Provincial health officialsalso announced 10 more deaths on Monday afternoon, bringing the total to 33. The province says431 casesare resolved.

The state of emergency, declared on March 17, had been set to expire Tuesday. The declaration, along with other emergency orders announced by the province, will now be in place until April 13.

In a news release on Monday night, Ford announced a new emergency orderunder the Emergency Management and Civil Protection Act. The ordercloses all outdoor recreational amenities, such as sports fields and playgrounds, effective immediately.

He said the extension of the declared emergency and the new emergency orderare based on the advice of Dr. David Williams, Ontario's chief medical officer of health.

According to the news release, thenew order closesall communal or shared, public or private, outdoor recreational amenities in Ontario. These includeplaygrounds, sports fields, basketball and tennis courts, off-leash dog parks, beaches, skateboard and BMX parks, picnic areas, outdoor community gardens, park shelters, outdoor exercise equipment, condo parks and gardens, and other outdoor recreational amenities.

Green spaces in parks, trails, ravines and conservation areas that aren'tclosed are toremain open for people to walk through, but peoplemust maintain a distance of at least two metres apart. Ontario's provincial parks and conservation reserves remain closed.

"I made a commitment to be open and upfront about what we need to do as a province to beat this virus," Ford said.

"We all need to work together and do our part to stop COVID-19 by staying home, practising physical distancing, and avoiding social gatherings."

Ford told reporters that the provincial government will assess every two weeks whether the state of emergencyshould be extended.

"It goestwo weeks at a time," Ford told reporterson Monday.

The province has also changed the way it is reporting cases. Itsonline page now includes more demographic data and trends.

Similarly, while Ontario was reporting updated numbers twice perday, once in the morning and againin the late afternoon, new numbers will now only be provided once per day at 10:30 a.m. ET.

Of Ontario's 1,706 confirmed cases:

• 50.2 per centare male, while 49.1 per centare female.
• The median age is 50, ranging in age from less than 1 to 100 years of age.
• Greater Toronto Area public health units account for 61.4 per centof all cases.
• Of all cases, 26.3 per centhad travelled in the 14 days prior to becoming ill;9.6 per centhad close contact with a confirmed case;16.2 per cent had neither and 47.9 per centhave exposure information pending.

Ford, who spoke at a newsconference Monday afternoon,said the province is now advising anyone over the age of 70, or anyone with an underlying health condition, to stay home and self isolate.

Ford said measures have to be ramped up in the face of increasing numbers of cases.

"We need to protect them," he said.

Provincial public health officials said Monday afternoon that Ontario's labs have conducted4,000 tests in the last 24 hours.Williams said that given thenumberof tests conducted, it's "not surprising" to see the number of positive tests jump.

"Some of that was due to backlog," he said.

At one point, Ontario had over 11,000 tests for COVID-19 pending. The provincehopes to "get rid of the backlog totally," Williams said. As of Monday afternoon, the province wasreporting a backlog of5,651 tests.

"Once priority testing is done," Williams said, the province could then "contemplate" wider testing.

Meanwhile, nineresidents of a long-term care home in Ontario cottage country have died of COVID-19 complications and that number is likely to increase, the facility's medical director says.

All of the deaths at PinecrestNursing Home in Bobcaygeon, about 150 kilometres northeast of Toronto,occurred since last Wednesday, said Dr. Michelle Snarr.

"There will be more deaths. It's grim, it's heartbreaking. We get more heartbreaking news all the time," she said in an interview on Monday morning.

"There may have been more by now. Several were close to death last night," she continued, explaining that she hadn't yet received the day's update from nurses inside the facility.

As of last week, at least 34 of the facility's 66 staff members were experiencingsymptoms of COVID-19, CBC Toronto previously reported.

The Haliburton, Kawartha, Pine Ridge Health Unit said Monday that24 staff hadtested positive for COVID, while test results are pending for 10 other staffers. Six others have tested negative.

Snarrsaid that staff who are able to continue working aredoing everything they can given limited resources.

"The residents who are dying, they are being kept comfortable."

It's not clear how the novel coronavirus got in to the home, she said, but it has already had a devastating impact.

"I've been in practice for 32 years," Snarr said. "I've seen a lot of bad stuff happen, but I don't remember anything with this level of sadness."

And it is not only residents and staff of the nursing home who have been affected. Jean Pollock, whose husband lives at Pinecrest, was a frequent visitor and volunteer at the facility.

She fell ill on her 82nd birthday onMarch 17, and learned last week that she had contracted the novel coronavirus. She died at Ross Memorial Hospital in Lindsay on Saturday morning.

Pollock's daughter, Pam Smith, was driving from Vancouver to be by her mother's side when she learned she had died.

The two spoke on the phone shortly before Pollock's death.

"She said, 'I'm going downhill quick.' So I told her that I loved her," Smith recalled. "She was pretty afraid. She was really struggling."

Smith fought back tears as she reflected on the health-care workers that tried to help her mother.

"If I could say anything about this experience other than losing my mom it would be that the kindness of people at Ross Memorial ... they were so kind to her, and so kind to me," she said.

"They were just true, true amazing humans."

The Ontario health ministry says there are cases of COVID-19 at 23 long-term care homes across the province.

Ford also pleaded with Ontario residents to stay home and practice physical distancing when he spoke Monday. He said some streets and parts of Toronto, especially by Lake Ontario, were "packed" on Sunday, and that is "unacceptable."

Ford said the government is "prepared to take further action" if the spread of the virus doesn't slow down. When asked if a mandatory stay home order was on the table, the premiersaid that he will take direction from provincial medical experts.

"We understand some over the weekend were less than vigilant," Williams said.

Torontohad 591cases of the coronavirus as of Monday, according to the city.

Dr. Eileen de Villa, Toronto's medical officer of health, said about 24 per cent of all cases in Toronto are due to community transmission.

She added that12doctors, 13 nurses, six other health care workers, eight Toronto Public Health officials and a shelter worker have all tested positive.

Six people have died in Toronto from the virus, 67 are in hospital,and 30are in intensive care units. A CBC Toronto investigation found there may far more COVID-19 patients in ICUs than official numbers show.