Ontario reported 834 new cases of coronavirus on Wednesday, bringing the provincial total to 72,885.
Wednesday’s case count is a slight increase from Tuesday’s which saw 827 cases but lower than Monday’s at 851. Active cases in Ontario now stand at 7,474.
According to Wednesday’s provincial report, 299 new cases were recorded in Toronto, 186 in Peel Region, 121 in York Region, 76 in Ottawa and 26 in Durham Region.
All other public health units in Ontario reported under 25 new cases.
The death toll in the province has risen to 3,108 as five more deaths were reported.
Ontario Health Minister Christine Elliott said more than 30,000 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 33,906 tests that need results. A total of 4,991,378 tests have been completed since the pandemic began.
The per cent positivity for processed tests and positive cases in Wednesday’s report was 2.8 per cent.
Here is a breakdown of the total cases in Ontario by gender and age:
- 35,010 people are male — an increase of 424 cases.
- 37,438 people are female — an increase of 410 cases.
- 7,453 people are 19 and under — an increase of 125 cases.
- 26,355 people are 20 to 39 — an increase of 313 cases.
- 20,762 people are 40 to 59 — an increase of 230 cases.
- 10,992 people are 60 to 79 — an increase of 121 cases.
- 7,304 people are 80 and over — an increase of 42 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, 62,303 Ontarians have recovered from COVID-19, the disease caused by the virus, which is 85 per cent of known cases. Resolved cases increased by 773 from the previous day.
Ontario has 312 people hospitalized due to COVID-19 (unchanged from the previous day), with 71 patients in an intensive care unit (down by four) and 51 patients in ICUs on a ventilator (down by one). All hospitalizations have overall steadily increased over the last several weeks.
The newly reported numbers for Wednesday’s report are valid as of Tuesday afternoon.
Ontario long-term care homes
According to the Ministry of Long-Term Care, there have been 1,934 deaths reported among residents and patients in long-term care homes across Ontario which is an increase of two deaths. Eight health-care workers and staff in long-term care homes have died which has remain unchanged for months.
There are 87 current outbreaks in homes, an decrease of one.
The ministry also indicated there are currently 396 active cases among long-term care residents and 297 active cases among staff — down by one and two cases respectively in the last day.
Ontario child care centres and schools
Meanwhile, government figures show there have been a total of 2,001 school-related COVID-19 cases in Ontario — 1,103 among students and 274 among staff (624 individuals were not identified). This is an increase of 92 more cases from the previous day.
In the last 14 days, the province indicates there are 499 cases reported among students and 107 cases among staff (332 individuals were not identified) — totaling 938 cases.
The COVID-19 cases are currently from 595 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 399 confirmed cases within child care centres and homes — an increase of nine (seven new child cases and two new staff cases). Out of 5,231 child care centres in Ontario, 139 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.