Ontario reports 287 new coronavirus cases, lowest since end of March

Ontario reported 287 new cases of the novel coronavirus on Tuesday, the lowest daily case number within a 24-hour period we’ve seen since March 31.

The provincial total now sits at 26,191 cases.

Tuesday’s report marks an increase of 1.1 per cent in total cumulative cases — the last time we saw daily cases in the 200s was May 10 and previous to that in March.

The death toll has risen to 2,123 as 21 more deaths were reported.

Meanwhile, 19,958 people have recovered from COVID-19, the disease caused by the virus, which is 76 per cent of cases.

Ontario has completed 629,414 tests so far for the virus. This is up 9,875 tests from the previous day, which is the ninth day in a row that daily testing did not hit the province’s May target of 16,000 tests per day.

This week, Ford has reiterated that anyone with or without symptoms can get tested to reach the available testing capacity.

Ontario has 848 patients (down by 11) hospitalized due to COVID-19, with 143 patients in an intensive care unit (down by five) and 113 patients in ICUs on a ventilator (down by one).

According to the Ministry of Long-Term Care, there have been 1,538 deaths reported among residents and patients in long-term care homes across Ontario, which is an increase of seven deaths, and there are 150 current outbreaks. Six health-care workers in long-term care homes have died.

Ontario officials have said there may be a discrepancy between overall deaths and deaths at long-term care homes due to how the province’s health database system, called iPHIS, is tracking data and how the Ministry of Long-Term Care is tracking data.

The ministry also indicated there are currently 1,855 confirmed cases among long-term care residents and 1,335 cases among staff.

Health-care workers in Ontario account for 4,485 of the total reported cases, which is 17 per cent of the infected population.

Greater Toronto Area public health units account for 65 per cent of all cases in the province.

Here is a breakdown of Ontario cases by gender and age:

• 11,286 people are male (43.1 per cent).
• 14,679 people are female (56 per cent).
• 866 people are 19 and under (3.3 per cent).
• 6,651 people are 20 to 39 (25.4 per cent).
• 8,002 people are 40 to 59 (30.6 per cent).
• 5,371 people are 60 to 79 (20.5 per cent).
• 5,285 people are 80 and over (20.2 per cent).
• 226 cases did not specify male or female and 16 cases had an unknown age.

There are 6,961 people currently under investigation awaiting test results.

The newly reported numbers are valid as of 2 p.m. Monday for Toronto, Ottawa and London public health units, and 4 p.m. for the rest of the province.