Experts say the COVID-19 pandemic appears to have peaked in Ontario, a month ahead of earlier forecasts and hospitals have largely escaped the feared surge in critically sick patients, health officials said Monday. “While earlier models predicted a peak in cases in May, public health interventions, including widespread adherence to physical distancing, have accelerated the peak to now,” reads new modelling data released Monday. “The sacrifices people are making to stay home and wash their hands are making a difference.”
The total cases for the span of the outbreak are now likely less than 20,000, starkly lower than the worst-case scenario of 300,000. But the news comes with a grim reminder that deaths continue to grow in nursing and retirement homes. The CBC video shows Adalsteinn Brown, dean of the Dalla Lana School of Public Health at the University of Toronto, saying that Ontario is now expecting a much lower number of COVID-19 cases this month than earlier models anticipated.