That’s the message from Toronto’s top public health official as the city reported 472 new cases of COVID-19 on Thursday.
During the city’s COVID-19 briefing, Dr. Eileen de Villa said people should assume there are more cases in the community than what it is being reported.
“As I said on Tuesday, and I will say again today: you should assume COVID-19 is everywhere and that without proper protections, you are at risk of infection,” de Villa said.
“The best way to do that is to follow the steps of self-protection, especially now.”
The doctor urged Torontonians to avoid any social settings and don’t interact with people they don’t live with in order to deprive the virus of the “opportunity to spread.”
“It won’t be forever, but it should be for the foreseeable future. Infections are very high in Toronto and we need to get them down,” de Villa said.
“If you think it’s hard in Toronto right now, imagine what it would be like if Toronto was one of the places in the world where it got so bad that we have to go into a hard lockdown.”
De Villa joined CP24 on Thursday to answer coronavirus-related questions.