TORONTO -- Ontario’s top doctor said that he would not be surprised if the province surpassed 2,000 new COVID-19 cases in a 24-hour period at some point this week.
The comment came as Ontario logged 1,940 new infections on Monday as well as 23 more deaths related to the disease.
Speaking to reporters Monday afternoon, Chief Medical Office of Health Dr. David Williams made reference to the fact that the daily-reported COVID-19 case numbers do not seem to be decreasing.
“With those numbers, the record amount of testing over the weekend and the amount of positivity from the testing that is sort of in the queue coming up, it would not surprise me if we went over 2,000 cases in a day which we have not breached so far,” Williams said.
“We might see that early in this week here. So that is concerning.”
Following four days in which the daily reported number of COVID-19 cases surpassed 1,800, Ontario saw a drop down to the 1,600s on Sunday.
Ontario’s single-day record is 1,983.
Williams added that the growing number of COVID-19 patients in Ontario intensive care units is also projected to increase, saying the province is in a “tenuous area” and that non-COVID-19 care is beginning to be impacted.
“The numbers in the intensive care, the numbers Dr. Yaffe eluded to, is projecting that some of those are going up even further, getting close to where we were in a maximum in wave one,” he said.
“We are concerned where this might go in the days ahead, especially as we head into the holiday season and what we may have to deal with.”
