Ontario reports record high new COVID-19 cases with 3,945, logs 61 new deaths

Ontario Premier Doug Ford says the province will not be seeing mass immunizations take place until April,asit logs a new single-day record of3,945 new COVID-19 cases and 61 new deaths on Sunday.

In a video tweet on Sunday, Ford saidthat mass vaccinations will not be takingplace in the province until April, May and June.

In the video, he calls on Ontarians to "band together" and continue following public health protocol to curb the spread of the novel virus.

"I'm asking one more time, we need to band together, we need to stick together," Ford said.

"We're going to see some real turbulent waters over the next couple of months."

As of Sunday, a total of113,246 COVID-19 vaccines were administered in the province with 9,983 given out Saturday.

Twenty-one of the 61 people who died in the last 24 hours wereresidents of the long-term care system.

Locally, Toronto had1,160 new cases, Peel Region had 641, York Region had 357, Windsor-Essex County had 223 and Waterloo Region had 220.

Health Minister Christine Elliott said the province's network of labs completed 62,300 testsinthe last 24 hours. There are 39,362 COVID-19 tests still under investigation.

The provincial health ministry reported that 1,483 people are in hospitalas a result of COVID-19. Of this number, 388arein intensive care units and 266 are breathing with the help of ventilators.

Sunday marks the seventh straight day of more than 3,000 new daily cases in Ontario.A total of 3,443new infections were reported on Saturday.

A total of 4,249 cases were reported on Friday butabout 450 were attributableto a data upload delay from Toronto Public Health.

The new deaths reported on Sunday bringthe total number of COVID-19 related deaths in Ontario since the pandemic beganto4,983.

Other areas reportingCOVID-19 casenumbers in the triple digits on Saturday include:

• Durham Region:190.
• Middlesex-London: 173.
• Niagara: 151.
• Ottawa: 129.
• Halton Region:118.

More than 30,000 cases are now considered active and there have been 180,720 cases marked as resolved.

NewCOVID-19 modelling data coming Tuesday

According to Ford's office, the latest COVID-19 modellingfor Ontario will be presented on Tuesday.

On Friday, Ford saidfurther restrictions are coming for Ontario, as health officials described thepandemic as "scary."

The premier said the new modelling will paint a potentially dire scenario in the province.

"We're in a desperate situation, and when you see the modelling, you'll fall out of your chair," Ford said.

"There will be further measures, because this is getting out of control."

The provincial government ordered a 28-day Ontario-wide lockdown on Dec. 26 in an effort to help curb the spread of COVID-19.