Today the provincial government reported a record 4,249 new cases of COVID-19. Ontario’s network of labs processed 71,481 test samples for the novel coronavirus and reported a test positivity rate of 6.2 per cent.
But the big number comes with a caveat as the new case count includes 450 infections from Toronto Public Health that were logged on January 5 and 6, but not reported due to a data problem, Health minister Christine Elliott tweeted.
That would put the daily count to 3,799, which is still a new high for Ontario. The previous record of 3,519 new cases was reported on Thursday.
A visibly disturbed Premier Ford held a rare morning news conference this morning where he again pleaded with Ontarians to follow public health guidelines. New modelling coming early next week will reveal a potentially dire scenario and may come with new lockdown measures as the situation was getting out of control, the premier said.
“We’re in a desperate situation, and when you see the modelling, you’ll fall out of your chair,” Ford said.
Dr. Barbara Yaffe, Ontario’s associate chief medical officer of health, who agreed with his assessment said. “I think we do need to consider more serious measures, perhaps similar to what happened in the spring.”
