Ontario Premier Doug Ford, alongside Deputy Premier and Health Minister Christine Elliott, announced on Monday that the provincial government will provide $125 million in funding for more than 500 additional critical care beds in hospitals in COVID-19 hot-spots across the province as case numbers and hospitalizations spike.

During the press conference in Vaughan, Ont., Ford said the hot-spot areas are: Toronto, Ottawa, Windsor, Kingston and Durham Region.

The premier also announced "a few short weeks," the Cortellucci Vaughan Hospital in Vaughan, Ont. will open and will be the first newly-built hospital in the province in over 30 years, expanding capacity for COVID-19 care.

"You need to mobilize every resource available," said Ford, regarding the fight against COVID-19.

When asked about the delay in Pfizer's COVID-19 vaccine delivery to Ontario, as the company faces worldwide delays, Elliott said it's known the next two shipments will contain 20 per cent fewer followed by 80 per cent fewer vaccines. She said in late-February to early-March, Ontario will receive larger shipments of vaccines coming in.

The news comes as Ontario is reporting 2,578 new cases of the coronavirus on Monday, bringing the provincial total to 240,364. Monday’s case count is a significant dip from Sunday’s which saw 3,422 new infections. On Saturday, 3,056 new cases were recorded and 2,998 on Friday.

It is also the lowest number of new cases reported within 24 hours since Jan. 1 when 2,476 new cases were recorded.

For more info, please go to https://globalnews.ca/news/7582732/ontario-coronavirus-cases-january-18-covid19/

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