Premier Ford says his government will be further enhancing protective measures and expanding its testing capacity to protect the most vulnerable sectors. This will include expanding testing for many priority groups such as people in long-term care, retirement home and developmental charities and shelters including special testing for pregnant women and homeless populations. The COVID testing rate is up to 9,000 per day, and the government still hopes to expand it to 14,000 a day.
The Minister of Health noted that the government is working directly with hospitals across the province to make more beds available and is expanding both the health human resources and medical care capacity as part of its plan to prepare for a possible surge. The province has added 1,035 acute care beds and 1,492 critical care beds and has taken special steps to ensure hospitals have the staff available to care for a sudden surge in patients.
The Financial Accountability Office released a new report this morning detailing the economic impact of COVID-19. According to the report, 1.2 million Ontarians have had their job status impacted by the COVID-19 outbreak, meaning one in six jobs have been touched by the pandemic.
Statistics Canada had already indicated that 403,000 people lost their jobs in Ontario in March as a result of government measures to contain the spread of COVID-19.
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