TORONTO — Record numbers of COVID-19 tests conducted across Ontario coupled with low case numbers not seen since March prompted effusive praise from the province's premier on Friday even as a city largely sheltered from the global pandemic so far began grappling with a new outbreak at a local nail salon.
Doug Ford said the speed with which officials identified the rash of cases in Kingston, Ont., and alerted those who may have been affected to get tested for the virus represents progress in the province's ongoing fight against the global pandemic.
"The system is working," Ford said at his daily news conference."It's working because of how quickly we contacted and traced 500 people."
Those alerted to the outbreak at Kingston's Binh's Nail and Spa appeared to heed the advice to seek testing, with a lineup at one local testing centre stretching nearly around the block.
The Kingston Frontenac Lennox and Addington Public Health unit said 16 cases have been tied to the salon so far, but noted roughly 500 clients had visited in the past two weeks and the number is expected to climb.
Medical officer of health Dr. Kieran Moore called the outbreak a "near miss," noting those who tested positive after visiting the salon included health-care and corrections workers. He said the region will soon be under a mandatory mask order.
Moore said that while salon staff were wearing protection since going back to work on June 12, not all patients followed suit.
"If we had let this go several days, I would fear that we would have had spread within high-risk institutions," he said. "I'm very happy we caught this early, and we must learn from it and set a new community standard to limit the spread."
Moore said even the limited outbreak is damaging the local economy, noting some businesses have voluntarily closed again after health officials established connections to the salon. He said anyone who visits an assessment centre must self-isolate for 14 days regardless of the test result.
Word of the Kingston outbreak came amid a wave of positive news across the rest of the province, which registered a significant spike in completed COVID-19 tests even as the number of new cases fell to lows not seen in weeks.
Provincial data showed 30,780 tests were completed on Thursday, uncovering 111 new COVID-19 cases across the provinces. Three more deaths were also reported.
That brings Ontario to a total of 34,316 cases, including 2,644 deaths and 29,754 resolved cases.
The increase in resolved cases, which jumped by 226, continues a trend that's seen them outpace active diagnoses for the past several days.
The number of people in hospital with COVID-19 fell from 270 to 256. And the numbers of people in intensive care and on ventilators — 61 and 41, respectively — fell to their lowest levels since the province started publicly reporting those figures at the beginning of April.
Health Minister Christine Elliott said 28 of Ontario’s 34 public health units were reporting five or fewer new cases, with 19 registering no new cases at all.
Elliott echoed Ford's praise for the effectiveness of the current system, saying situations like the one unfolding in Kingston emphasize the need for individual protective measures but don't signal a need to backtrack on the province's economic reopening plans.
All regions of the province except the southwestern communities of Leamington and Kingsville have officially entered Stage 2 of the plan, which permits personal care services, restaurant patios, pools and numerous other businesses to resume operations with physical distancing measures in place.
"It doesn't mean that we need to move back on anything that we've moved into Stage 2, but we are continuing to follow it to make sure that the appropriate precautions are taken," she said.
Ford declined to speculate on when the province might move to Stage 3 of economic recovery, nor if reopening measures would be applied regionally as they were for Stage 2. But he touted the success of the approach taken so far when compared to those in place across the United States, which has seen multiple states reporting thousands of new COVID-19 cases per day.
"That's the comparison," he said. "Everyone being cautious and everyone following the protocol, which they have ... versus a reckless approach, in my opinion, south of the border. Everyone just goes hog wild and ... that's come back to bite them."
This report by The Canadian Press was first published on June 26, 2020.
Michelle McQuigge, The Canadian Press