Ontario reports 712 new coronavirus cases, 9 more deaths

Ontario reported 712 new cases of coronavirus on Friday, bringing the provincial total to 62,908.

Friday’s case count is a decrease from Thursday’s which saw 783 cases and Wednesday’s at 721.

According to Friday’s provincial report, 213 new cases were recorded in Toronto, 135 in Peel Region, 108 in Ottawa, 62 in York Region, 46 in Halton Region and 27 in Durham Region. All other public health units in Ontario reported under 25 new cases.

The death toll in the province has risen to 3,031 as nine more deaths were reported.

Ontario Health Minister Christine Elliott said more than 38,500 tests were processed in the last 24 hours. The government has said it hoped to increase testing to 50,000 per day by mid-October.

However, there is currently a backlog of 37,155 tests that need results.

A total of 4,572,841 tests have been completed since the pandemic began.

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

• 30,107 people are male — an increase of 375 cases.
• 32,382 people are female — an increase of 335 cases.
• 5,985 people are 19 and under — an increase of 97 cases.
• 22,561 people are 20 to 39 — an increase of 290 cases.
• 17,884 people are 40 to 59 — an increase of 223 cases.
• 9,700 people are 60 to 79 — an increase of 86 cases.
• 6,766 people are 80 and over — an increase of 17 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, 54,004 Ontarians have recovered from COVID-19, the disease caused by the virus, which is 85 per cent of known cases. Resolved cases increased by 713 from the previous day.

Ontario has 261 people hospitalized due to COVID-19 (up by eight from the previous day), with 67 patients in an intensive care unit (up by five) and 36 patients in ICUs on a ventilator (up by five). All hospitalizations have, overall, increased over the last several weeks.

The newly reported numbers for Friday’s report are valid as of 2 p.m. Thursday for Toronto, Ottawa and Middlesex-London public health units, and 4 p.m. Thursday for the rest of the province.

Ontario child care centres and schools

Meanwhile, government figures show there have been a total of 1,242 school-related COVID-19 cases in Ontario — 690 among students and 195 among staff (357 individuals were not identified). This is an increase of 98 more cases from the previous day.

In the last 14 days, the province indicates there are 416 cases reported among students and 106 cases among staff (213 individuals were not identified) — totaling 735 cases.

The COVID-19 cases are currently from 485 out of 4,828 schools in the province.

Five schools in Ontario are currently closed as a result of positive cases, the government indicated.

There have been a total of 292 confirmed cases within child care centres and homes — an increase of 11 since the previous day (seven new child cases and four new staff cases).

Numbers for cases in schools and child care centres is updated weekdays only, at 10:30 a.m.

Ontario long-term care homes

According to the Ministry of Long-Term Care, there have been 1,901 deaths reported among residents and patients in long-term care homes across Ontario, an increase of four deaths in the last day. Eight health-care workers and staff in long-term care homes have died.

There are 72 current outbreaks in homes, an increase of one.

The ministry also indicated there are currently 158 active cases among long-term care residents and 203 active cases among staff — down by one and up by four cases respectively in the last day.