Ontario reported 790 new cases of coronavirus on Wednesday, bringing the provincial total to 66,686.
Wednesday’s case count is a decrease from Tuesday’s which saw 821 new cases but an increase from Monday’s at 704.
According to Wednesday’s provincial report, 321 new cases were recorded in Toronto, 157 in Peel Region, 76 in York Region, 57 in Ottawa and 43 in Durham Region.
All other public health units in Ontario reported under 35 new cases.
The death toll in the province has risen to 3,062 as nine more deaths were reported.
Ontario Health Minister Christine Elliott said more than 32,600 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.
The per cent positivity for processed tests and positive cases in Wednesday’s report was 2.4 per cent, down from yesterday’s at 3.4.
However, there is currently a backlog of 29,332 tests that need results. A total of 4,746,972 tests have been completed since the pandemic began.
Here is a breakdown of the total cases in Ontario by gender and age:
- 31,997 people are male — an increase of 412 cases.
- 34,270 people are female — an increase of 399 cases.
- 6,504 people are 19 and under — an increase of 94 cases.
- 24,038 people are 20 to 39 — an increase of 348 cases.
- 19,018 people are 40 to 59 — an increase of 217 cases.
- 10,171 people are 60 to 79 — an increase of 104 cases.
- 6,942 people are 80 and over — an increase of 29 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, 57,325 Ontarians have recovered from COVID-19, the disease caused by the virus, which is 86 per cent of known cases. Resolved cases increased by 719 from the previous day.
Ontario has 260 people hospitalized due to COVID-19 (down by 14 from the previous day), with 71 patients in an intensive care unit (down by one) and 49 patients in ICUs on a ventilator (up by four). All hospitalizations have, overall, increased over the last several weeks.
The newly reported numbers for Wednesday’s report are valid as of 2 p.m. Tuesday for Toronto, Ottawa and Middlesex-London public health units, and 4 p.m. Tuesday for the rest of the province.
Ontario child care centres and schools
Meanwhile, government figures show there have been a total of 1,569 school-related COVID-19 cases in Ontario — 874 among students and 235 among staff (460 individuals were not identified). This is an increase of 144 more cases from the previous day.
In the last 14 days, the province indicates there are 455 cases reported among students and 113 cases among staff (255 individuals were not identified) — totaling 823 cases.
The COVID-19 cases are currently from 518 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 342 confirmed cases within child care centres and homes — an increase of 19 (10 new child cases and nine 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 1,908 deaths reported among residents and patients in long-term care homes across Ontario, which is an increase of one 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 decrease of one.
The ministry also indicated there are currently 216 active cases among long-term care residents and 260 active cases among staff — up by 19 and up by 11 cases respectively in the last day.