Article content

It was a big spike in new cases, a big spike in the number of deaths from COVID-19 on Friday, yet strange as it sounds, the province is doing better than officials projected just two weeks ago.

It was on April 3 that provincial health officials unveiled their modelling that said the province could expect 80,000 cases of COVID-19 by April 30 and 1,600 deaths.

We apologize, but this video has failed to load.

tap here to see other videos from our team. Try refreshing your browser, or LILLEY: Ontario faring better than projected in COVID-19 fight Back to video

Theoretically we could still get there, but it’s unlikely.

As of Friday morning the province had 9,525 total cases, 829 people were hospitalized, 245 were in intensive care and 200 of those were on ventilators. The most important metric showed there were 478 deaths recorded.

We apologize, but this video has failed to load.

tap here to see other videos from our team. Try refreshing your browser, or

The fact that we are doing better than expected is cold comfort to anyone who has lost a loved one due to COVID-19, but the province is a far cry from the 1,600 deaths predicted.

And Premier Doug Ford commends the people of Ontario for helping to keep those numbers low.

“I give all the credit to the people in this province, they practice social distancing and self-isolation and the results are positive,” he said Friday.