Ontario reports 827 new coronavirus cases, 4 more deaths

Ontario reported 827 new cases of coronavirus on Tuesday, bringing the provincial total to 72,051.

Tuesday’s case count is a decrease from Monday’s which saw 851 cases and from Sunday at 1,042 cases — a single-day record. Active cases in Ontario now stand at 7,418.

According to Tuesday’s provincial report, 355 new cases were recorded in Toronto, 169 in Peel Region, 89 in York Region, 58 in Ottawa and 44 in Durham Region.

All other public health units in Ontario reported under 20 new cases.

The death toll in the province has risen to 3,103 as four more deaths were reported.

Ontario Health Minister Christine Elliott said more than 23,900 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 Tuesday’s report was 3.5 per cent.

However, there is currently a backlog of 22,636 tests that need results. A total of 4,961,368 tests have been completed since the pandemic began.

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

• 34,586 people are male — an increase of 389 cases.
• 37,028 people are female — an increase of 434 cases.
• 7,328 people are 19 and under — an increase of 125 cases.
• 26,042 people are 20 to 39 — an increase of 327 cases.
• 20,532 people are 40 to 59 — an increase of 226 cases.
• 10,871 people are 60 to 79 — an increase of 102 cases.
• 7,262 people are 80 and over — an increase of 47 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, 61,530 Ontarians have recovered from COVID-19, the disease caused by the virus, which is 85 per cent of known cases. Resolved cases increased by 691 from the previous day.

Ontario has 312 people hospitalized due to COVID-19 (up by 17 from the previous day), with 75 patients in an intensive care unit (down by three) and 52 patients in ICUs on a ventilator (up by one). All hospitalizations have, overall, increased over the last several weeks.

The newly reported numbers for Tuesday’s report are valid as of Monday afternoon.

Ontario long-term care homes

According to the Ministry of Long-Term Care, there have been 1,932 deaths reported among residents and patients in long-term care homes across Ontario which is an increase of 11 deaths. The government has previously said reporting LTCH deaths into its system may be delayed which can result in the discrepancy of the daily death count reported and deaths reported within long-term care homes.

Eight health-care workers and staff in long-term care homes have died which has remain unchanged for months.

There are 88 current outbreaks in homes, an increase of two.

The ministry also indicated there are currently 397 active cases among long-term care residents and 299 active cases among staff — up by 16 and up by four cases respectively in the last day.

Ontario child care centres and schools

Meanwhile, government figures show there have been a total of 1,910 school-related COVID-19 cases in Ontario — 1,063 among students and 261 among staff (586 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 503 cases reported among students and 103 cases among staff (326 individuals were not identified) — totaling 932 cases.

The COVID-19 cases are currently from 593 out of 4,828 schools in the province.

No schools in Ontario are currently closed as a result of positive cases, the government indicated.

There have been a total of 390 confirmed cases within child care centres and homes — an increase of 26 (11 new child cases and 15 new staff cases). Out of 5,231 child care centres in Ontario, 137 currently have cases and 40 centres are closed.

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