Ontario is stepping up efforts to find “reinforcements” for the health-care system as the number of COVID-19 cases climbs to new highs daily with almost 200 deaths.

“If you have medical training, if you want to save lives, we need you,” Premier Doug Ford said Tuesday.

The province is launching an online portal at to match retired, lapsed, and foreign-trained medical professionals and students in health disciplines with gaps that need to be filled at public health units, assessment centres, hospitals, nursing homes and other health-care providers.

In addition to an expected surge in cases that could result in as many as 1,600 deaths by the end of April according to computer modelling revealed last week, more than 500 health-care workers have contracted the new coronavirus either at work, in the community or through travel.

That number includes two dozen workers at the 67-bed Pinecrest Nursing Home in Bobcaygeon, which has had at least 26 deaths. There have been outbreaks at 51 nursing homes in the province.

“There’s no time to waste,” Ford told a news conference, noting thousands have called or written the government offering to help. “They don’t want to sit on the sidelines.”

As of 5 p.m. Tuesday, Ontario had 5,637 confirmed and probable cases of the new coronavirus, up 535 or 10 per cent since Monday at the same time, according to a Star compilation of numbers released by the 34 regional public health units across the province. Deaths rose by 25 or 15 per cent to 190.

Health-care experts have been quietly working behind-the-scenes with the province to get Ford’s worker initiative rolling.

The College of Physicians and Surgeons of Ontario, for example, can issue renewable 30-day licences to foreign-trained doctors to work under supervision if they have not completed a Canadian medical residency program yet. They must have practised full-time within the last two years.

As well, the college regulating doctors is working to expedite applications from retired physicians who have given up their licenses.

Sources told the Star the government is also recruiting doctors who are not busy in their own clinics now that non-essential care has been winding down amid the pandemic, and could be deployed to hospitals.

Health Minister Christine Elliott said foreign-trained doctors not yet licensed in Ontario will not always be able to serve as front-line physicians but added “they will certainly have a place within our health-care system.”

Although some stepping forward from various health disciplines have indicated they wish to volunteer, “people will be paid for the work that they’re going to do,” Elliott told reporters on a teleconference.

Ontario’s chief medical officer said medical students and foreign-trained doctors could do valuable case tracing of people who contract COVID-hotlines at overworked public health units across the province.

“We could certainly use large numbers in that regard,” said Dr. David Williams, who office notes daily that the source of infection remains unknown in about half of Ontario’s cases.

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That has created a need for such work to “rapidly expand,” he added.

Liberal Leader Steven Del Duca urged the government to find a way to “fast-track” credentials for foreign-educated health care workers deployed to fight COVID-19 once the crisis is over “so that we can make full use of their talents.”

Ministry of Health statistics, based on reports from public health unit as of 4 p.m. Monday, showed 1,802 people were considered clear of COVID-19 and 691 are awaiting test results.

There were 614 people in hospital, with 233 in intensive care and 187 of them critically ill on ventilators to assist in breathing. About 70 per cent of people whose oxygen levels fall so low they require ventilation do not survive.

In Ottawa, federal chief public health officer Dr. Theresa Tam said there were 17,063 cases across the country, up 1,241 or 7.8 per cent from Monday, and 345 deaths, an increase of 52 people or almost 18 per cent.

The actual number of people who have had the new coronavirus is expected to be hundreds or thousands higher because many with mild symptoms have been asked to self-isolate at home and were not tested.

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