Ontario reports 948 new coronavirus cases, 7 more deaths

Ontario reported 948 new cases of coronavirus on Monday, bringing the provincial total to 77,655.

Monday’s case count is a slight decrease from Sunday which saw 977 and Saturday’s at 1,015. Active cases in Ontario now stand at 8,096.

According to Monday’s provincial report, 315 new cases were recorded in Toronto, 269 in Peel Region, 81 in York Region, 64 in Ottawa, 32 in Durham Region and 30 in Hamilton.

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

The death toll in the province has risen to 3,152 as seven more deaths were reported.

Ontario Health Minister Christine Elliott said more than 27,900 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.

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There is currently a backlog of 15,397 tests that need results. A total of 5,174,968 tests have been completed since the pandemic began.

The per cent positivity for processed tests and positive cases in Monday’s report was 3.4 per cent.

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

• 37,379 people are male — an increase of 494 cases.
• 39,882 people are female — an increase of 447 cases.
• 8,162 people are 19 and under — an increase of 137 cases.
• 28,124 people are 20 to 39 — an increase of 382 cases.
• 22,102 people are 40 to 59 — an increase of 284 cases.
• 11,612 people are 60 to 79 — an increase of 109 cases.
• 7,644 people are 80 and over — an increase of 35 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, 66,407 Ontarians have recovered from COVID-19, the disease caused by the virus, which is 85 per cent of known cases. Resolved cases increased by 826 from the previous day.

Ontario has 328 people hospitalized due to COVID-19 (down by 22 from the previous day), with 75 patients in an intensive care unit (up by three) and 45 patients in ICUs on a ventilator (down by one). Hospitalizations have overall steadily increased over the last several weeks.

Health officials did indicate in the report that about 40 hospitals did not submit hospitalization data due to the weekend and anticipate a higher number of hospitalizations when the data is reported.

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

Ontario long-term care homes

According to the Ministry of Long-Term Care, there have been 1,959 deaths reported among residents and patients in long-term care homes across Ontario which is an increase of four deaths. 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 increase of four.

The ministry also indicated there are currently 502 active cases among long-term care residents and 318 active cases among staff — up by seven and up by 14 cases respectively in the last day.

Ontario child care centres and schools

Meanwhile, government figures show there have been a total of 2,230 school-related COVID-19 cases in Ontario — 1,238 among students and 295 among staff (697 individuals were not identified). This is an increase of 71 more cases from the previous day.

In the last 14 days, the province indicates there are 480 cases reported among students and 88 cases among staff (324 individuals were not identified) — totaling 892 cases.

The COVID-19 cases are currently from 558 out of 4,828 schools in the province.

One school in Ontario are currently closed as a result of positive cases, the government indicated.

There have been a total of 430 confirmed cases within child care centres and homes — an increase of six (five new child cases and one new staff case). Out of 5,231 child care centres in Ontario, 125 currently have cases and 34 centres are closed.

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