Ontario reports 896 new coronavirus cases, 9 more deaths

Ontario reported 896 new cases of coronavirus on Friday, bringing the provincial total to 74,715.

Friday’s case count is a decrease from Thursday’s which saw 934 new cases but higher than Wednesday’s at 834. Active cases in Ontario now stand at 7,669.

According to Friday’s provincial report, 314 new cases were recorded in Toronto, 173 in Peel Region, 115 in York Region, 92 in Ottawa, 37 in Halton Region and 32 in Durham Region.

All other public health units in Ontario reported under 30 new cases.

The death toll in the province has risen to 3,127 as nine more deaths were reported.

Ontario Health Minister Christine Elliott said more than 41,000 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 41,063 tests that need results. A total of 5,068,007 tests have been completed since the pandemic began.

The per cent positivity for processed tests and positive cases in Friday’s report was 2.2 per cent.

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

• 35,942 people are male — an increase of 443 cases.
• 38,399 people are female — an increase of 504 cases.
• 7,718 people are 19 and under — an increase of 127 cases.
• 27,007 people are 20 to 39 — an increase of 304 cases.
• 21,280 people are 40 to 59 — an increase of 239 cases.
• 11,232 people are 60 to 79 — an increase of 126 cases.
• 7,464 people are 80 and over — an increase of 103 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, 63,919 Ontarians have recovered from COVID-19, the disease caused by the virus, which is 85 per cent of known cases. Resolved cases increased by 796 from the previous day.

Ontario has 314 people hospitalized due to COVID-19 (down by eight from the previous day), with 75 patients in an intensive care unit (down by two) and 52 patients in ICUs on a ventilator (unchanged). Hospitalizations have overall steadily increased over the last several weeks.

The newly reported numbers for Friday’s report are valid as of Thursday afternoon.

Ontario long-term care homes

According to the Ministry of Long-Term Care, there have been 1,939 deaths reported among residents and patients in long-term care homes across Ontario which is an increase of one death. Eight health-care workers and staff in long-term care homes have died which has remain unchanged for months.

There are 78 current outbreaks in homes, an decrease of five.

The ministry also indicated there are currently 421 active cases among long-term care residents and 280 active cases among staff — up by two and down by three cases respectively in the last day.

Ontario child care centres and schools

Meanwhile, government figures show there have been a total of 2,159 school-related COVID-19 cases in Ontario — 1,197 among students and 287 among staff (675 individuals were not identified). This is an increase of 61 more cases from the previous day.

In the last 14 days, the province indicates there are 481 cases reported among students and 91 cases among staff (317 individuals were not identified) — totaling 889 cases.

The COVID-19 cases are currently from 551 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 424 confirmed cases within child care centres and homes — an increase of nine (two new child cases and seven new staff cases). Out of 5,231 child care centres in Ontario, 131 currently have cases and 38 centres are closed.

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