Ontario Premier Doug Ford didn't mince words during his daily press conference on Wednesday when speaking about where the majority of his focus lies in terms of the province's efforts against COVID-19.
Ford said that there are two things that he has been zoned in on: personal protective equipment (PPE) and COVID-19 testing, which he hasn't weighed in on heavily before Wednesday.
"What is absolutely unacceptable are the numbers of testing that we're doing," said Ford. "I may not understand health, but what people understand around this province and what I understand are numbers, and we also understand countries that have tested and that have ramped up testing have shown results."
The premier has set a benchmark for the province to carry out 13,000 COVID-19 tests daily, starting with long-term care workers and frontline health care workers.
"As I mentioned to our (COVID-19) command table and to the CEO (of Ontario Health, Matt Anderson) last night, my patience has run thin and no more excuses," said Ford.
"It's unacceptable, we have the capacity now. Before, I understand we didn't have the re-agent (a necessary component of testing), we didn't have all the testing. We have the testing capabilities, we have the assessment centres capabilities, we have the re-agent — we say we can do 13,000 a day? Then we need to start doing 13,000 every single day."
Ford stressed that he wants to see every long-term care facility tested, every patient, every health care worker at long-term care facilities, along with senior residents.
"I want to see every frontline health care worker in this province tested, along with first responders — our police, our fire, our paramedics. We owe it to them, along with other people being tested," said Ford.
"The days are done of these 2,000 and 3,000 a day being tested and moving forward we need to see 13,000 tests every single day. I have the confidence of our health team, I have the confidence of our leadership at the table — we have to make this happen and we need to start doing it immediately, starting tomorrow."
You can watch Premier Ford's full press conference below.
