Ontario Just Answered All Your Questions About The New Stay-At-Home Order

Ontario announced eight new cases of the so-called United Kingdom variant Tuesday, bringing Canada's confirmed total to at least 22. This is to support their mental health and well-being, as well as to ensure those requiring support continue to have access to essential caregivers.

He added that doctors will soon be faced with deciding which patients will receive care and which will not if there is not a "significant" drop in contacts between people.

"There will be choices about who will get the care they need and who will not", said Brown.

"We've learned a lot over the past year responding to this pandemic, including the fact that what may be essential to someone in Timmins and how they buy that item may not be essential to someone in downtown Toronto, who can easily buy items online for delivery", the province said.

The new variant of the virus could see total case numbers spike to 12,000 a day.

The Ontario government now hopes to begin the second phase of its vaccination plan - which will involve seniors outside of long-term care and in other forms of congregate care - as early as April, as larger numbers of federally approved vaccines become more available.

She noted, however, that current trends in the province were "scary" and said as many as a third of residents surveyed reported they are not following public health guidelines.

"We are still months away form the millions of doses to get the critical mass of people vaccinate", Ford said. Case growth has recently been over 7% on the worst days, the data showed. "Ontario is exploring all options available to put a temporary residential evictions moratorium in place, and will have more to say in the coming days".

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The number of patients with Covid-19 in intensive care has passed the peak figure reached in the first wave of the pandemic, with 158 people in ICU.

Public health officials have made recommendations to cabinet on what measures the province should undertake next.

Premier Doug Ford and his cabinet met Monday night to consider new restrictions amid skyrocketing infection rates.

Sixty-four per cent of the new cases reported today are in the hotspots around the GTHA and Windsor-Essex.

Ontario, the country's economic engine, has been under lockdown since December 26, with non-essential businesses shuttered and schools closed for in-person learning. "Over 44,800 tests were completed yesterday", Health Minister Christine Elliott said on Twitter. In the surrounding regions, the confirmed case total rose by 18 in Eastern Ontario, four in both Kingston, Frontenac and Lennox & Addington and Leeds, Grenville & Lanark, and by one in Renfrew County and District.

If the rate climbs to seven per cent, that means the province will see 40,000 new daily cases.

There are 1,701 patients in hospital - an increase of 138 over the previous day - including 385 in intensive care units. That includes 385 people in ICU, with 262 on ventilators.

The projections predict case counts and hospitalizations will all rise alongside the death count to levels that would have a disastrous effect on the provincial healthcare ecosystem. It's in our long-term care homes, and it's in our workplaces.