TORONTO — Premier Doug Ford said he will not punish the entire province over the decisions of some people to flout COVID-19 restrictions on the weekend, though these actions, along with more daily cases, has resulted in public health officials questioning plans to increase the size of social gatherings.
“I’m not going to punish the whole province because a group of people in Toronto decided to get together,” Ford said during his daily media briefing on Monday. “It’s not fair to Toronto as well.”
A photo of a crowded park in downtown Toronto on Saturday drew widespread condemnation online and Ford is now encouraging people who were there to get tested for COVID-19.
“I’m disappointed to say the least to everyone who showed up to Trinity Bellwood on Saturday,” he said. “My recommendation to anyone at Trinity Bellwood, why don’t you do us all a favour and go get tested now. I encourage anyone who has been in large gatherings like that to go get tested.”
On Sunday, Ford urged anyone with concerns regarding exposure to COVID-19, even those without symptoms, to get tested at an assessment centre.
Testing numbers in the province are once again falling behind, with daily tests dropping from more than 17,000 on May 16 to less than 11,400 on May 24, well below the 20,000 goal.
“If you have symptoms, you’re worried, you’ve been in large groups and worried about having COVID or been in contact with someone who may have had COVID, go get tested,” Ford said. “We are going to launch the next steps of our robust testing strategy. We are going into hotspots of communities that are lighting up.”
The number of new daily cases in the province has also remained over 400 for the past week. Minister of Health Christine Elliott said the jump last week was most likely due to Mother’s Day gatherings the week prior and the numbers this week will reveal if entering stage one of the three-stage reopening framework is resulting in a spike in cases.
“What we are going to see going into the end of this week will be more based on what is happening with the opening up of the economy that happened last week,” she said. “We hope they will continue to go down, but if they continue to increase, that will be a time for us to pause and understand the situation and take action or don’t take action going forward.”
“I know people are anxious to have more things open, but we have to make sure we do this responsibly.”
Elliott added that there are no plans to lift restrictions on how many people can gather, due in part to the number of new cases, and fears that it could lead to larger gatherings like the one seen in Toronto on the weekend.
“But given what’s happening with the number of people coming down with COVID in the last few days and this past weekend with large groups of people gathering, Dr. Williams is reluctant to move forward with that because of fear of people creating groups that are too large,” she said.
“We are still looking at it. We will have to wait and see the numbers come down first before we implement it.”
Whatever restrictions are lifted and when, it will still be a province-wide approach, with Ford saying remote and rural areas of the province not be permitted to open any sooner than the rest of Ontario.
“It just doesn’t make sense,” Ford said. “The people of Toronto are going to go into rural areas.”
