Angry Doug Ford Demands More COVID-19 Testing
Premier Doug Ford lost his composure Wednesday over Ontario’s lack of widespread testing for COVID-19.
“What is unacceptable, absolutely unacceptable, is the number of testing we’re doing,” Ford said at his now-daily press conference in Toronto.
“I may not understand health, but ... what I understand are numbers. And we also understand countries that have tested and ramped up testing have shown results.”
Ontario’s labs are processing about 3,000 COVID-19 tests per day even though they have the capacity to process 13,000 a day, the premier said.
My patience has run thin.Premier Doug Ford
He said he’s taken the problem up with his COVID-19 command table, which is leading the province’s response to the pandemic, and the CEO of Ontario Health.
“My patience has run thin ... We say we can do 13,000 a day. Then we need to start doing 13,000 every single day.”
He said he expects all front-line health-care workers, first responders as well as staff and residents at long-term care facilities and seniors’ homes to be tested.
“The days are done of this two and three thousand being tested.”
COVID-19, the disease caused by the novel coronavirus that originated in Wuhan, China in late 2019, has devastated some Ontario long-term care homes. Twenty-eight deaths have been linked to one nursing home in Bobcaygeon, Ont. alone. And there are 35 other outbreaks in long-term care homes.
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