These maps show Toronto’s current COVID-19 hot spots are not where you think they are.
Most people don’t pay attention to where their COVID-19 hot spots are.
The vast majority of health officials assume the virus is moving from one country to another. They are wrong.
Toronto now has 13 COVID-19 hot spots.
What’s a hot spot?
Hot spots are places where the virus is spreading more quickly than what would be expected if it were the same everywhere.
Toronto has two hot spots at the same time: the old city core of Toronto and the suburbs.
The rest of the city is not a hot spot.
The city’s hot spots are in the suburbs – the downtown core is not.
The city’s hot spots
When news of Toronto’s hot spots first broke, the government issued a report from Toronto Public Health (TPH) and Metrolinx.
The Metrolinx report said the three hot spots are areas that are at risk for COVID-19.
The report said the city’s three hot spots are:
The old city core
The east end to Sheppard West
The northwest corner of Etobicoke
The first two spots are now well on the way to becoming Toronto’s three hot spots.
Last night the city’s Mayor Tory said:
“We are going to do the same thing as the Province of Ontario and Toronto Public Health will be meeting with the community in the coming days to ensure that we’re working together.”
When the news first broke yesterday, the Canadian government issued a map of where it thinks the virus is. You can see the same map here:
The first mistake is that we are wrong.
The virus is not moving from one hot spot to another. It is going west out of Toronto. Once it is out of Toronto, it will be moving west out of the country. This map reflects that wrong thinking.
This is because we know that a virus going west does not mean the virus moves from one