SUDBURY, ON- APRIL 11 – PC Leader Doug Ford skips the Provincial Leaders debate hosted by the Black Community to campaign in Northern Ontario including this a rally attended by approximately 300 people at Cambrian College in Sudbury. April 11, 2018. (Steve Russell/Toronto Star)
Pablo Balza
New COVID-19 modelling data released indicates Ontario could reach more than 1,000 new COVID-19 cases every day throughout the first two weeks of October, Doug Ford announced at Queen’s Park Thursday.
“Yesterday’s modelling data was a wake-up call, please don’t let your guard down,” Ford said during the press conference.
538 new cases of COVID-19 are reported in Ontario today. A total of 82,000 tests were completed which is the highest to ever be recorded, as reported by CBC News.
About 70 per cent of the new cases are in the Greater Toronto Area, 229 cases in Toronto, which don’t include Peel and York’s regions confirmed 101 and 43 cases, confirmed by CBC News.
Health Minister Christine Elliot said Ontario’s top priorities during the COVID-19 pandemic is to protect health and well-being of it’s residents and “that commitment has always included our front line health care workers who have gone above and beyond to help patients through the COVID-19 pandemic.”
Ford stated that Ontario will provide a higher temporary pay raise for personal support workers, with $3 per hour more towards 50,000 PSWs within long-term care establishments, 38,000 in-home care and 34,000 in children’s services. The personal support workers (PSWs) who work in the hospital will have a $2 per hour raise.
The raises are effective Oct. 1 and will continue until Mar. 31, Ford said during the press conference.
Merrilee Fullerton, the minister of long-term care, spoke on the important roles PSWs have in long-care term homes.
“The backbone of every long-care term home is their personal support workers and I always appreciate speaking with the PSWs during my visits,” Fullerton said.
“Every resident in our long-term care homes, as well as their families, have stories about their PSWs and how significant they are to their daily lives,” she said regarding the good quality of PSWs at every long-term care home across Ontario.
Chief Medical Officer of Health, Dr. David Williams, spoke on the Public Health Measure team are monitoring the COVID-19 cases at the press conference.
He said the Public Health Measure team is monitoring the number cases asking “how does that change from week over week, how are the weekly trends and how are the monthly trends?”