Toronto officials released a map of known COVID-19 infections in the city Wednesday, showing the northern edges of North York, Etobicoke and Scarborough have been hit hardest by the virus.
The map shows that Glenfield-Jane Heights has had 286 infections since the outbreak began, followed by West Humber-Clairville area in Etobicoke with 258 cumulative infections and York University Heights in North York with 250 infections.
Islington-City Centre West and Downsview also have had more than 200 virus infections.
In Scarborough, there have been 199 cases in the Woburn area while the Rouge River area has had 190 infections since the outbreak began.
Comparatively, the well-to-do neighbourhood of Mount Pleasant East has seen only nine cases in three months, while Yonge and Eglinton has seen only eleven.
The Lambton area of south Etobicoke is home to only seven confirmed COVID-19 patients.
The city updated the numbers Wednesday evening after a technical data upload issue.
Chief Medical Officer Dr. Eileen de Villa said the data released Thursday does nothing to suggest where someone might contract the virus, only where they live.
“Where a person lives does not necessarily indicate where they picked up COVID-19,” she said. “You are at risk of picking up COVID-19 anywhere where you are in close contact with respiratory droplets from someone carrying the virus.”
Toronto reported 152 new COVID-19 infections on Wednesday, or more than half of Ontario’s total in the past 24 hours.
But the good news is recoveries outstripped new cases by 35.
"Our data confirm that COVID-19 is present in every single neighbourhood in Toronto," de Villa said. "At this time, based on the last two weeks of activity, our mapping indicates that people living in the northwest and the northeast parts of the city now have the highest number of COVID-19 cases."
The reproductive rate of the virus in the city was once as high as R3.1, de Villa said, indicating each new infected person was passing the virus along to more than three other people on average.
Today, the reproductive rate of the virus stands at R1.1
“We want to get this number below one,” de Villa said, adding the virus won’t die out in the community until this occurs.
More than 10,000 people have contracted the virus inside the city to date.
Toronto Mayor John Tory said he thinks releasing the map will help reinforce the need for people to continue to practice physical distancing and that it could humanize the crisis for people not directly confronted by its effects.
“This is about human beings who have tested positive, fellow Torontonians, who live with us in our city and who live in areas that have been affected more so, perhaps, than others. I believe this information, releasing it to the public, will do far more help than it will do harm.”
