Ontario reports 841 new coronavirus cases, 9 more deaths

Ontario reported 841 new cases of coronavirus on Thursday, bringing the provincial total to 67,527.

Thursday’s case count is an increase from Wednesday which saw 790 new cases and Tuesday’s at 821. It also marks the second-highest case count ever recorded. Active cases in Ontario now stand at 6,390.

According to Thursday’s provincial report, 335 new cases were recorded in Toronto, 162 in Peel Region, 106 in York Region, 72 in Ottawa and 29 each in Durham and Halton regions.

All other public health units in Ontario reported under 35 new cases.

The death toll in the province has risen to 3,071 as nine more deaths were reported. Nine deaths were also reported on Wednesday.

Ontario Health Minister Christine Elliott said more than 38,900 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.

The per cent positivity for processed tests and positive cases in Thursday’s report was 2.2 per cent, down from yesterday’s at 2.4 and Tuesday’s at 3.4.

However, there is currently a backlog of 34,784 tests that need results. A total of 4,785,832 tests have been completed since the pandemic began.

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

• 32,426 people are male — an increase of 429 cases.
• 34,687 people are female — an increase of 417 cases.
• 6,627 people are 19 and under — an increase of 123 cases.
• 24,356 people are 20 to 39 — an increase of 318 cases.
• 19,277 people are 40 to 59 — an increase of 259 cases.
• 10,281 people are 60 to 79 — an increase of 110 cases.
• 6,975 people are 80 and over — an increase of 33 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, 58,066 Ontarians have recovered from COVID-19, the disease caused by the virus, which is 86 per cent of known cases. Resolved cases increased by 741 from the previous day.

Ontario has 270 people hospitalized due to COVID-19 (up by 10 from the previous day), with 74 patients in an intensive care unit (up by three) and 48 patients in ICUs on a ventilator (down by one). All hospitalizations have, overall, increased over the last several weeks.

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

Ontario child care centres and schools

Meanwhile, government figures show there have been a total of 1,641 school-related COVID-19 cases in Ontario — 920 among students and 241 among staff (480 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 444 cases reported among students and 101 cases among staff (250 individuals were not identified) — totaling 795 cases.

The COVID-19 cases are currently from 501 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 349 confirmed cases within child care centres and homes — an increase of seven (three 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 1,910 deaths reported among residents and patients in long-term care homes across Ontario, which is an increase of two since the previous day. Eight health-care workers and staff in long-term care homes have died.

There are 80 current outbreaks in homes, an decrease of six.

The ministry also indicated there are currently 203 active cases among long-term care residents and 243 active cases among staff — down by 13 and up by 17 cases respectively in the last day.