Ontario reports 189 new COVID-19 cases

By James Tubb

MITCHELL – The province of Ontario has recorded  less than 200 new COVID-19 cases for the second straight day.

Ontario health officials reported 189 new cases Thursday, bringing the provinces total cases to 34,205. There were also 10 more COVID-19-related deaths, bringing the province’s death toll to 2,641.

This is not the first time the province has had a stretch of under 200 cases. From June 12 to 18 the numbers dipped below 200, then spiked to 206 June 19. Since then, Ontario has only had one day of reported cases above 200, on June 22.

Canada’s chief public health officer, Dr. Theresa Tam, spoke Thursday morning regarding Canada’s COVID-19 case totals. Tam reported 279 new cases on Thursday for a total of 102,000 total cases country wide.

She also compared Canada’s fight against COVID-19 to that of firefighters fighting fires.

“Cases and clusters are like small fires, public health authorities are the firefighters and contact tracing and quarantine are like the water need to extinguish the blade. The more fires there are to put out, the greater the risk that public health resources will be overwhelmed trying to get to all the fires before the wind shifts  and starts an uncontrollable blaze.”

“Canada needs all of the volunteer COVID-19 firefighters we can get to help smother the embers by keeping pubic health practices up and the number of contacts down,” said Tam.

Ontario Premier Doug Ford says that he still does not want to see cross-border travel with the U.S. for any non-essential purposes due to the on-going fear of a potential second COVID-19 wave.

The premier made his comments at a news conference on Thursday, saying that he spoke to an expert about the matter who informed  him that it would not be wise to reopen the borders to the U.S..

“I know it’s inevitable and we got to do it. I just don’t think we are ready right now. You see what’s happening down in the states; you look at Florida, you look at Texas, Arizona, California. I don’t want to be those states. I want to protect the people here in Ontario,” said Ford.

According to the deputy premier of Ontario and minister of health, Christine Elliott, 27 of Ontario’s 34 public health units are reporting five or fewer cases, with 10 of them reporting no new cases at all.

As of June 25, the Hastings – Prince Edward Public Health said it has had a total of 43 confirmed cases of COVID-19 since Jan. 15. There have been no new cases since May 18