Sections of major Toronto roads are closed to cars this weekend as part of ActiveTO

More sections of major Toronto roads are closed for the second weekend in a row, in aneffort tocreatemore space forwalkers and cyclistsduring COVID-19.

Parts of Lake Shore Boulevard and Bayview Avenue are closed as part of the city's ActiveTOplan, intended to help people maintain physical distancing while outside. The city expanded theclosures to include Lake Shore Boulevard East this weekend after cyclists and pedestrians flocked to the closed streets last week.

Starting at 6 a.m. Saturday and continuing untilSunday at 11 p.m.,the followingstreets areclosed to cars:

• Lake Shore Boulevard West (eastbound lanes only),fromWindermere Avenue to Stadium Road.
• The eastbound Gardiner Expressway off-ramp to Lake Shore Boulevard West.
• Lake Shore Boulevard East (eastbound lanes only), from Coxwell Avenue to just south of Woodbine Avenue.
• Bayview Avenue from Mill Street to Rosedale Valley Road.
• River Streetfrom Gerrard Street East to Bayview Avenue.

Mayoreyes weekday road closures

Mayor John Tory said Saturday he also wants to look at roads that could close duringweekdays in order to help people who are commuting.

He calledActiveTO a "living experiment." The city will "definitely" keep doing it, Tory said, while assessing the impact on the rest of the city and "fine-tuning" the project.

"I think the results overall will be positive and we'll end up doing more of thisas opposed to less, because it's what we should be doing," said Tory.

The citysays it willtake the closuresone weekend at a time, monitoringwhether some places need more space or if certain roadsaren't being used.

Toronto'sActiveTO program alsoincludes several "quiet streets" for local traffic only, as well as a plan to expand the city's cycling network.

Many people celebrated the open space last weekend, though the road closures drew somemixed reaction.

The mayor said he saw thousands of people from all backgrounds using the roads during the first weekend of closures.

City confirms 220 new cases Saturday

Meanwhile, Toronto is still seeing more than 200 new COVID-19 cases per day, city health officials say.

Toronto Public Health confirmed 220new cases on Saturday, bringing the total number of cases in the cityto9,835.Some 7,202people have recovered.

Here's a look at other key data points from the city:

• Some 391people remain in hospital with COVID-19.
• Of those, 94are in intensive care.
• There have been 750confirmed COVID-19 deaths.

The city says some 14 per cent of those who have been infected with the novel coronavirus have needed to be hospitalized.