Ontario COVID-19 deaths jump past 100; caseload more than 4,000

By the canadian press

TORONTO — Another 25 people in Ontario have succumbed to COVID-19, bringing the provincial death toll for the virus to 119, health authorities reported on Sunday.

The fatalities come as the overall known caseload jumped past the 4,000 mark with more than 400 new ones reported. More than 150 people were on ventilators.

More than three dozen outbreaks have been reported in nursing homes across the province. The frail elderly are at particular risk for coronavirus, which can produce no or mild symptoms but can also cause lethal pneumonia.

About half the cases in the province are in Toronto, where the latest figures indicated 25 doctors, nurses, and other health-care workers in the city were infected.

Ontario has projected between 3,000 and 15,000 lives that could be lost to the pandemic even with stiff stay-home restrictions.

On Sunday, the union representing correctional officers said about 40 inmates of a large women’s prison in southwestern Ontario were locked down due to an outbreak of COVID-19. Five inmates at Grand Valley Institution in Kitchener, Ont., were infected, Correctional Service Canada said.

The Union of Canadian Correctional Officers also said one guard was infected. Prison staff was being given protective equipment if they need to interact closely with inmates, the union said.

Correctional Service Canada did not immediately respond to a request to comment.

The pandemic has prompted most businesses and public facilities to close down, causing financial havoc across the country.

Ontario Opposition Leader Andrea Horwath called on the provincial government to spend up to $1.15 billion to help small and medium-sized businesses, charities and community-based non-profits survive.

“We not only want them to survive, we want them to be able to keep staff on the payroll as much as possible,” Horwath said in a statement.

The previously announced federal wage subsidy was welcome but simply not enough, Horwath said. The NDP proposal calls among other things for a 75 per cent commercial rent subsidy of up to $10,000 a month for three months and a freeze on utility payments.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published on April 5, 2020.

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