Ontario reports 4,249 new infections of COVID-19 — a record even factoring in 450 cases from Toronto earlier in the week — that are included in Friday’s data.

That prompted this reaction from province’s Associate Medical Officer of Health.

”Today’s numbers are, to be frank, they are scary,” said Dr. Barbara Yaffee. 

”It’s going the wrong way.  We have more and more people hospitalized.  More and more people in ICU.  More and more people on ventilators.”

The province says 1,446 are hospitalized with 369 in intensive care and 250 on ventilators.

There are also 26 more deaths; all but six in long-term care.

Currently, there are outbreaks in 224 of Ontario’s 626 nursing homes.

Dr. Yaffee says the province might need to return to a stricter lockdown similar to what we experienced last spring.

Doug Ford says the current lockdown may need to be extended and that more ”extreme” measures could be coming if residents ignore public health rules.

The premier adds new projections to be released next week are very concerning.