Yesterday I shared some concerns about Ontario’s Ministry of Health and Long Term Care (MOHLTC) efforts to inform the public about confirmed cases of COVID-19 in the province. Today the MOHLTC began to address those concerns.
The MOHLTC is now committing to provide a more detailed epidemiological summary of COVID-19 cases in the province every day at 10:30 a.m. The epidemiological summary will be based on data reported by the 34 public health units across Ontario and recorded in the province’s integrated Public Health Information System (iPHIS). Data for each day’s epidemiological summary will be pulled from iPHIS at 4:00 p.m. the previous day.
The daily epidemiological summary replaces updates about new confirmed cases of COVID-19 that the MOHLTC was struggling to provide twice daily. The new daily epidemiological summary is designed to provide more provincial and regional data on confirmed cases, demographics and trends of cases since the outbreak began including geography, exposure and severity.
The MOHTLC’s initial epidemiological summary, covering the period January 15, 2020 to March 29, 2020, is now online.