Ontarians urged to celebrate Mother's Day virtually

The province reported another 3,424 new cases of COVID-19 and 26 deaths Thursday

Torontosun.com
May 7, 2021

Ontarians should celebrate Mother’s Day virtually unless living in the same household, Associate Medical Officer of Health Dr. Barbara Yaffe says.

“If Ontario is to end our third pandemic wave and avoid a fourth wave we must continue to drive transmission down,” Yaffe said Thursday. “This will require our continued commitment to those public health measures that we know work.”

Ontarians urged to celebrate Mother's Day virtually

“So yes, this means that if you don’t live with your mother, I’m sitting here once again asking Ontarians to celebrate Mother’s Day virtually,” she added.

The province reported another 3,424 new cases of COVID-19 Thursday, including 958 in Toronto, 900 in Peel Region, 291 in York Region, 175 in Durham Region, 155 in Hamilton, 129 in Halton Region, 127 in Niagara Region and 108 in Ottawa.

There were an additional 26 deaths confirmed Thursday and 95 lives lost just since Monday’s provincial update.

Dr. Dirk Huyer, chief coroner and coordinator of the provincial outbreak response, said 29 people passed away in April and seven more in May in the community before they could seek out hospital care.

Hospitals cared for 1,924 COVID-19 patients -- 877 in ICU and 600 on ventilators.

Seven-day trends reveal a flattening in the rate of daily new cases.

“We are seeing some early signs of improvement,” Yaffe said. “The public health measures are having some effect as is the continued vaccination rollout.”

Ontario administered a record 141,038 doses of COVID-19 vaccines in the previous 24 hours and 5.74 million Ontarians have received at least one shot.

Now that the Pfizer vaccine has been approved for use in youth aged 12 and up, the province will likely begin targeting that age group sometime after May 24.

“We are actively discussing and thinking about how will we approach the 12 to 18-year-olds,” he said.

Even though the provincial plan is to vaccinate at least 65% of the adult population with one dose by the end of the month, public health officials are still not indicating when the lockdown measures will be lifted.

Reopening schools will be one of the first steps taken, Yaffe said.

Most outbreaks in the province now tend to be in workplaces, she said.