TORONTO -- Ontario Premier Doug Ford says his "friends" in the United States tell him they are "shocked" by the low COVID-19 numbers in the province.
The premier made the comments at a news conference on Monday, commending the province for its success so far in battling the deadly disease.
“I have the opportunity to talk to a lot of friends in the U.S., and they just can't believe it,” Ford told reporters.
“It's like we were living on a different planet when I tell them we’re under 100 cases with 14.77 million people. They're shocked.”
For one whole week, Ontario was reporting fewer than 100 new cases of the novel coronavirus per day. On Monday, that number rose slightly to 115 cases, but the province continues to be on a downward trend.
Ontario’s, as well as Canada’s, success in lowering the COVID-19 case count is a stark contrast in comparison to the U.S., where health official report that the country hit 5,000,000 confirmed cases of COVID-19 on Sunday.
In Ontario, health officials have reported a total of 40,161 cases, while all of Canada’s case count totals 119,451.
“They keep asking how and I said, ‘it's the people, I have nothing to do with this.’ So I always say I play the smallest part. It's the people that all pitched in, [and] followed the protocols and guidelines from the chief medical officers,” Ford said.
“It's amazing when we all band together and we're all pulling in the same direction, how we can get things resolved.”
