Ontario reported 934 new cases of coronavirus on Thursday, bringing the provincial total to 73,819.
Thursday’s case count is an increase from Wednesday’s which saw 834 new cases and Tuesday’s at 827 cases. Active cases in Ontario now stand at 7,578.
According to Thursday’s provincial report, 420 new cases were recorded in Toronto, 169 in Peel Region, 95 in York Region, 58 in Ottawa, 35 in Halton Region and 28 in Hamilton.
All other public health units in Ontario reported under 25 new cases.
Based on daily provincial data, Toronto set a new record for cases in a single day, however, health officials confirmed the spike was due to a backlog.
“Today’s case count figure is the result of an unusually high amount of data being input after staff illnesses and deployment of other staff for training on the new provincial software system for case and contact management,” said Toronto’s Medical Officer of Health Dr. Eileen de Villa. “This batching of data entry accounts for approximately 100 cases, which, if not included, would have been consistent with the level of recent case counts, in the low to mid-300 range.”
The death toll in the province has risen to 3,118 as ten more deaths were reported.
Ontario Health Minister Christine Elliott said more than 35,600 tests were processed in the last 24 hours. The government has said it hoped to increase testing capacity to 50,000 per day by mid-October.
However, there is currently a backlog of 40,074 tests that need results. The province has surpassed five-million tests, reporting that a total of 5,026,99 tests have been completed since the pandemic began.
The per cent positivity for processed tests and positive cases in Thursday’s report was 2.6 per cent.
Here is a breakdown of the total cases in Ontario by gender and age:
- 35,499 people are male — an increase of 489 cases.
- 37,895 people are female — an increase of 457 cases.
- 7,591 people are 19 and under — an increase of 138 cases.
- 26,703 people are 20 to 39 — an increase of 348 cases.
- 21,041 people are 40 to 59 — an increase of 279 cases.
- 11,106 people are 60 to 79 — an increase of 114 cases.
- 7,361 people are 80 and over — an increase of 57 cases.
The province notes that not all cases have a reported age or gender.
The province also notes that the number of cases publicly reported each day may not align with case counts reported by the local public health unit on a given day. Local public health units report when they were first notified of a case, which can be updated and changed as information becomes available.
Meanwhile, 63,123 Ontarians have recovered from COVID-19, the disease caused by the virus, which is 85 per cent of known cases. Resolved cases increased by 820 from the previous day.
Ontario has 322 people hospitalized due to COVID-19 (up by 10 from the previous day), with 77 patients in an intensive care unit (up by six) and 52 patients in ICUs on a ventilator (up by one). All hospitalizations have overall steadily increased over the last several weeks.
The newly reported numbers for Thursday’s report are valid as of Wednesday afternoon.
Ontario long-term care homes
According to the Ministry of Long-Term Care, there have been 1,938 deaths reported among residents and patients in long-term care homes across Ontario which is an increase of four deaths. Eight health-care workers and staff in long-term care homes have died which has remain unchanged for months.
There are 83 current outbreaks in homes, an decrease of four.
The ministry also indicated there are currently 419 active cases among long-term care residents and 283 active cases among staff — up by 23 and down by 14 cases respectively in the last day.
Ontario child care centres and schools
Meanwhile, government figures show there have been a total of 2,098 school-related COVID-19 cases in Ontario — 1,157 among students and 283 among staff (658 individuals were not identified). This is an increase of 99 more cases from the previous day.
In the last 14 days, the province indicates there are 493 cases reported among students and 100 cases among staff (330 individuals were not identified) — totaling 923 cases.
The COVID-19 cases are currently from 581 out of 4,828 schools in the province.
No schools in Ontario are currently closed as a result of positive cases, the government indicated.
There have been a total of 415 confirmed cases within child care centres and homes — an increase of 16 (nine new child cases and seven new staff cases). Out of 5,231 child care centres in Ontario, 135 currently have cases and 40 centres are closed.
Numbers for cases in schools and child care centres is updated weekdays only, at 10:30 a.m.
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