These maps show Toronto’s current COVID-19 hot spots are not where you think they are.
The city says health officials aren’t sure how long the virus will be able to spread without a vaccine or an effective cure or how long it will be before residents resume their activities.
The city says there’s a high risk of spread in new areas, especially as more people are allowed to return to work.
Meanwhile, City Hall announced on Friday Toronto’s COVID-19 emergency preparedness budget for 2020-2021 was $17 million.
That includes about $5 million for the Toronto Public Health.
The city says it has already secured almost 20,000 protective equipment items, making it one of the largest inventories of personal protective equipment in North America. The City of Toronto says it also had enough personal protective equipment to outfit every Toronto police officer on the streets for 18 months.
City officials say they have also ordered more than $4 million worth of protective equipment because of the virus.
In a statement, Mayor John Tory said, “We are putting a lot of thought into how we will best prepare for the pandemic and how we continue the work we are doing every day to keep our city and our great people safe.”
When will the virus peak?
City staff say public health experts currently believe the COVID-19 outbreak will peak at about the time when the number of daily new cases will start to decline.
That means it could peak much earlier than expected, they say.
“We don’t know how long this disease will last, it could be months or longer,” said Dr. Reuben Abati, deputy medical health officer of health in Toronto.
“It may be that as we see that decline in the number of new cases of coronavirus, the virus will go into a trough.”
Public health experts say the coronavirus outbreak is likely to peak around the end of April or early May.
When will people finally be able to relax and go back to work?
Toronto’s health officials say they continue to urge people against returning to work while the coronavirus continues to spread.
