Toronto Public Health said Tuesday that they will not be providing detailed data on COVID-19 case numbers at long-term care homes as the numbers grow and change rapidly.

“While I completely appreciate the desire to know details about individual cases, our focus needs to be on managing our local outbreak response and protecting the privacy of these individual and their families during this difficult time,” Dr. Eileen de Villa, the city’s medical officer of health, said in a press briefing.

She cited numbers that are “constantly changing,” sometimes multiple times per day as situations evolve.

Toronto has seen a growing number of outbreaks at long-term care homes, some of which are run by the city, some of which are private and at others run by not-for-profit organizations.

Family members of some residents have expressed frustration that there has not been better public information about the number of cases at each home.

There are currently 38 active outbreaks across long-term care homes in the city and 14 in local retirement homes. So far there have been 68 confirmed COVID-19 deaths in long-term care homes in Toronto and one death at a local retirement facility.

Toronto’s current COVID-19 death toll stands at 115.

De Villa said she shares the concerns of those who are finding it difficult to get information about their loved ones in homes.

“We know that families put their loved ones in long-term care homes because they have very specific needs that cannot be readily addressed within your standard home in the community sort of setting,” she said.

She added that the homes and health officials are desperately trying to keep up with a new virus that they are still learning about.

“The challenge is in those environments is that it is changing so rapidly, literally many, many times a day,” de Villa said. “So I think this is a challenge not just to us as the support to long-term care homes, but from what I can gather, it is a significant challenge to those who are actually trying to provide care in those settings to the residents that they have. Tracking the numbers that are constantly changing while trying to provide care and maintain strict outbreak control measures is a herculean task.”

She added that the decision not to provide detailed daily numbers for each home has more to do with wanting to focus on care than preventing transparency.

“So I don’t think there is any real effort or intent by long-term care providers, and certainly not by public health, to not be forthcoming with numbers,” de Villa said. “I think there are just challenges for many of us in terms of trying to ensure that we’re doing the best we can by the residents in those settings while at the same time providing information as fulsomely as we can.”

Families of residents at one long-term care home in the city expressed surprise Monday to learn that 25 residents had passed away at the facility when it was reported a day earlier that 14 people had died there.

Eatonville Care Home said the sudden jump had to do with the provincial criteria for assessing whether a person passed away from COVID-19.

De Villa said Tuesday that it can sometimes take several days to determine whether a death is attributable to COVID-19, especially when other circumstances might be present, such as concurrent outbreaks and multiple health conditions.

The focus of the battle against the virus has shifted to long-term care homes in recent days, as COVID-19 has spread like wildfire through some homes.

The province announced new measures Tuesday to try and fight the spread of the disease at long-term care homes, including a provincial order that workers not work at more than one facility during the pandemic.