Let The Bells Ring Out!

Well, at least one bell.

Ontario's COVID cases dropped dramatically (unbelievably?) yesterday.  Almost to the mythical target level.

Even the GTA (Greater Toronto Area) played along.

At least until tomorrow, when we get another "reporting issue".

But until then - release the hounds!  The Ontario government just announced they are allowing bars and restaurants to reopen everywhere.

Oh - everywhere but Toronto.

Toronto will still need to prove that a one day drop is sustainable.  Because there are still lots of "hot spots".  And I don't mean funky after hour clubs.

This chart is published daily by the City of Toronto, showing COVID hot spots.

The darker the colour, the hotter the spot.

But this map does not convey the real magnitude of how hot those spots are.

So here is a chart showing the actual rates of COVID per million population in Toronto's 142 neighbourhoods. [I've aggregated similar rates to a more manageable number.]

[As always, click on any graph to zoom in.]

Incredibly, 17.000, for example, means almost 2% of that neighbourhood has been infected.

As a comparison, New York and New Jersey, the two hardest hit US states, are 20,000 and 19,000 respectively.

The city says the above map was not meant to stigmatize these neighbourhoods, but to identify areas requiring different COVID mitigation strategies.

Often these higher rates are due to large families living in small apartments and low income parents having to commute to work. No tele-working for them.

The city will be soon leasing "isolation hotels" for some of these folks. Because if they do get infected, they have no room to self isolate at home.

But until then, for the rest of Ontario, be on the lookout for suspicious people at your local pubs wearing fake noses and mustaches. 

"Are you from Toronto?"