Toronto Public Health Says Second Wave Of The COVID-19 Outbreak Is Highly Likely

Although the city has been managing the pandemic better than anticipated, it's not time to celebrate just yet. COVID-19 in Toronto isn't quite over, and it's likely we will see another spike in cases. Toronto Public Health has stated that a second wave of the outbreak is to be expected until we build immunity or produce a vaccine. The City has announced that it is doing well in the efforts to flatten the curve and cases appear to have peaked.  Ontario as a whole is now in its best-case scenario in terms of the number of people who are projected to fall ill from the virus. Although it may seem like we're heading to the end of the tunnel, health officials are not ready to reopen the province just yet. A statement from Toronto's Medical Officer of Health Dr. Eileen de Villa says that "we know that we will experience another COVID-19 wave because we have yet to reach a high level of immunity in our community". "We will continue to see COVID-19 spreading in our community until we start to experience herd immunity. This will not happen until many people are infected with COVID-19 and recover and they build immunity that lasts, or we develop a vaccine."

However, when this second wave will be seen is still unknown.

"We know that treatments and a vaccine for COVID-19 are several months, if not more than a year away," de Villa continues in the statement."This is why we continue to ask everyone to stay home and practice physical distancing so that the rate of infection does not overburden our local health system. "

Earlier this month, the Ontario health officials announced that the province could see the pandemic last for up to two years. 

Mayor John Tory also announced that it could also take the city several months to re-open.

However, when the city does finally come out of the lockdown, the mayor promises that there will be a celebration. 

As of 9 a.m. Wednesday morning, Toronto has reported 190 deaths and 223 recovered cases. There have been 3,820 cases overall in the entire city to date.