Ontario reports 704 new coronavirus cases, majority in Toronto, Ottawa, Peel and York regions

Ontario reported 704 new cases of coronavirus on Monday, bringing the provincial total to 65,075.

Monday’s case count is an increase from Sunday’s which saw 658 cases but a decrease from Saturday’s at 805.

According to Monday’s provincial report, 244 new cases were recorded in Toronto, 168 in Peel Region, 103 in York Region and 51 in Ottawa. All four regions are now in a “modified Stage 2” due to being COVID-19 hotspots.

All other public health units in Ontario reported under 25 new cases.

The death toll in the province has risen to 3,050 as four more deaths were reported.

Ontario Health Minister Christine Elliott said nearly 31,900 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 16,303 tests that need results.

A total of 4,690,277 tests have been completed since the pandemic began.

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

• 31,172people are male — an increase of 351 cases.
• 33,462 people are female — an increase of 341 cases.
• 6,303 people are 19 and under — an increase of 118 cases.
• 23,378 people are 20 to 39 — an increase of 264 cases.
• 18,547 people are 40 to 59 — an increase of 200 cases.
• 9,970 people are 60 to 79 — an increase of 99 cases.
• 6,864 people are 80 and over — an increase of 22 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, 55,978 Ontarians have recovered from COVID-19, the disease caused by the virus, which is 85 per cent of known cases. Resolved cases increased by 607 from the previous day.

Ontario has 252 people hospitalized due to COVID-19 (up by five from the previous day), with 69 patients in an intensive care unit (down by two) and 40 patients in ICUs on a ventilator (down by three). All hospitalizations have, overall, increased over the last several weeks.

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

Ontario child care centres and schools

Meanwhile, government figures show there have been a total of 1,312 school-related COVID-19 cases in Ontario — 736 among students and 203 among staff (373 individuals were not identified). This is an increase of 74 more cases from the previous day.

In the last 14 days, the province indicates there are 430 cases reported among students and 106 cases among staff (213 individuals were not identified) — totaling 749 cases.

The COVID-19 cases are currently from 483 out of 4,828 schools in the province.

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

There have been a total of 302 confirmed cases within child care centres and homes — an increase of 10 (six 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 1,906 deaths reported among residents and patients in long-term care homes across Ontario, which is unchanged since the previous day. Eight health-care workers and staff in long-term care homes have died.

There are 86 current outbreaks in homes, an increase of six.

The ministry also indicated there are currently 209 active cases among long-term care residents and 234 active cases among staff — down by five and up by 11 cases respectively in the last day.

3:36 Coronavirus: Premier Ford announces action plan to make government services more accessible amid pandemic