COVID-19 Update for January 18 – 2:15PM

Today, Premier Doug Ford and Minister of Health Christine Elliott held a press conference to announce a new hospital opening soon in the City of Vaughan will initially be used to treat only COVID-19 patients.

New hospital opens in Vaughan
The Premier announced that the newly built Cortellucci Vaughan Hospital will open on February 7th. The site is the first new hospital not replacing an existing one to be built in the province in more than 30 years. The facility will open as a dedicated system-wide resource to support the province’s pandemic response and relieve pressure on hospitals with high numbers of COVID-19 patients. Once COVID-19 numbers have stabilized, the hospital will open fully to the public as was originally planned.

Ford also announced $125 million in new funding to add more than 500 critical care beds in hard hit regions of the province. The new beds will be in addition to 3,100 critical care beds that were originally funded as part of the province’s COVID-19 response. The province is currently working with Ontario Health to identify the hospitals most in need.

You can read the full announcement here.

Ontario reports a decline in daily positive case load
Ontario reported 2,578 new cases of COVID-19 on Monday, the lowest positive daily case total the province has seen since January 1st. The lower daily case total is likely the result of a significant decline in testing. The number of tests processed in the province is the lowest number completed in a 24-hour period since January 5th.