Toronto Public Health just released a new neighbourhood map showing the per cent positivity of COVID-19 in areas throughout the city — which reflects the number of positive cases per 100 people tested for a given week — and it once again demonstrates that certain communities in the city are being disporportionately affected by the virus and a lack access to testing. 

The most recent data (from the week of Oct. 4), which is incomplete, shows that several neighbourhoods in the city's northwest corner have per cent positivity rates well above 3 per cent, which is considered a critical threshold by Toronto Public Health.

Neighbourhoods including West Humber-Clairville (7.9 per cent), Black Creek (10.8 per cent), Mount Olive-Silverstone-Jamestown (7.7 per cent), Humbermede (9.6 per cent), Glenfield-Jane Heights (8.8 per cent), Kingsview Village-The Westway (7.4 per cent), Elms-Old Rexdale (8.6 per cent), and Brookhaven-Amesbury (12 per cent) all reported per cent positivities well above the 3 per cent threshold between Oct. 4 and 10, as did a number of other neighbourhoods scattered throughout the city. 

Toronto's current city-wide average, meanwhile, is roughly 3.1 per cent positivity. 

And many of the areas with high per cent positivity rates also reported low testing rates, prompting Medical Officer of Health Dr. Eileen de Villa to state during the city's press briefing Monday that increased testing is clearly needed in certain neighbourhoods to get a better picture of the situation. 

"Where COVID-19 is hitting hardest, tailored, targeted action is needed," she said.