COVID Situation in Ontario, Canada

On January 23rd, 2020, the very first presumptive case of corona virus infection in Ontario, Canada was a male in his 50s, who travelled between Wuhan and Guangzhou before returning to Toronto on January 22nd, 2020. Final testing conducted at the National Microbiology Laboratory in Winnipeg, Manitoba confirmed the presumptive case on January 27th, 2020. His condition was later improved and released from hospital on January 31st, 2020. The second presumptive case was his wife and the third case in Ontario was reported in City of London, Ontario. Since then, COVID-19 cases were increased.

Coronavirus disease (COVID-19) is an infectious disease caused by a newly discovered coronavirus called SARS-CoV-2. WHO first learned of this new virus on December 31st, 2019, following a report of a cluster of cases of ‘viral pneumonia’ in Wuhan, People’s Republic of China. The virus that causes COVID-19 is mainly transmitted through droplets generated when an infected person coughs, sneezes, or exhales. These droplets are too heavy to hang in the air, and quickly fall on floors or surfaces. One can be infected by breathing in virus if a person is in close proximity of someone who has COVID-19, or by touching a contaminated surface and then your eyes, nose or mouth.

Ontario was seeing the spread of the virus earlier in the year of 2020. Health officials and Government were learning more about the virus and making people aware about the symptoms. Government had shared the guidelines & precautionary measures to avoid getting infected by COVID-19. People were scared too. Everywhere people were noticed following guidelines of wearing mask, washing hands, using sanitizers and not going out of home unless it was necessary for essentials or emergency. Hence, we were seeing a drop in new cases. After June 3, 2020, Ontario had never seen 400+ new cases until September 18th, 2020 as shown in Chart 1. At one point, Ontario had only 33 new cases in the province.

In Chart 1, New Cases are shown in maroon colour. November has 1500+ new cases per day for the very first time in Ontario, Canada. 14 days are normal requirement of CDC for someone to develop the COVID symptoms. Hence, chart 1 depicts 3 days, 7 days, 14 days and 21 days of averages in blue, orange, purple and green colours respectively. Chart 2 shows total of new cases in each month. New cases have been increased quite significantly in the months of October and November, 2020.

Chart 3 shows hospitalization, ICU and deaths in Ontario, Canada. April has highest number of hospitalization compared with November, which is quite ironic. It is safe to assume that earlier people were hospitalized with even minor symptoms, whereas, now people are self-quarantined at home with minor symptoms and hospitalized only when someone developed major symptoms or critical conditions. Chart 4 depicts new cases reported in November, 2020. Later part of the week has higher new cases comparatively.

In conclusion, COVID-19 a.k.a. coronavirus is quite contagious and can spread easily if precautionary measures are not taken. People must follow guidelines of CDC, Health Canada and Government of Canada for their safety and others.