Ontario reports 998 new coronavirus cases, 13 more deaths

Ontario reported 998 new cases of coronavirus on Thursday, bringing the provincial total to 80,690.

Thursday’s case count is a slight increase from Wednesday’s which saw 987 cases but lower than Tuesday’s at 1,050 — a new single-day high ever recorded in Ontario. Active cases in Ontario now stand at 8,358.

According to Thursday’s provincial report, 350 new cases were recorded in Toronto, 269 in Peel Region, 71 in York Region, 47 in Halton Region and 45 in Ottawa.

All other public health units in Ontario reported under 40 new cases.

The death toll in the province rose to 3,195 as 13 more deaths were reported.

Ontario Health Minister Christine Elliott said nearly 35,800 tests were processed in the last 24 hours — an increase as testing numbers have been below 30,000 since Monday. The government has said it hoped to increase testing capacity to 50,000 per day by mid-October, and 68,000 tests per day by mid-November.

There is currently a backlog of 41,787 tests that need results. A total of 5,264,568 tests have been completed since the pandemic began.

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

• 38,921 people are male — an increase of 487 cases.
• 41,366 people are female — an increase of 504 cases.
• 8,660 people are 19 and under — an increase of 170 cases.
• 29,167 people are 20 to 39 — an increase of 361 cases.
• 22,992 people are 40 to 59 — an increase of 257 cases.
• 12,024 people are 60 to 79 — an increase of 126 cases.
• 7,837 people are 80 and over — an increase of 84 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, 69,137 Ontarians have recovered from COVID-19, the disease caused by the virus, which is 85 per cent of known cases. Resolved cases increased by 968 from the previous day.

Ontario has 381 people hospitalized due to COVID-19 (up by 14 from the previous day), with 86 patients in an intensive care unit (up by 11) and 48 patients in ICUs on a ventilator (up by four). Hospitalizations have overall steadily increased over the past several weeks.

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

Ontario long-term care homes

According to the Ministry of Long-Term Care, there have been 1,976 deaths reported among residents and patients in long-term care homes across Ontario which is an increase of six deaths. Eight health-care workers and staff in long-term care homes have died which has remain unchanged for months.

There are 89 current outbreaks in homes, an increase of four.

The ministry also indicated there are currently 522 active cases among long-term care residents and 320 active cases among staff — up by 37 and up by 17 cases respectively in the last day.

Ontario child care centres and schools

Meanwhile, government figures show there have been a total of 2,543 school-related COVID-19 cases in Ontario — 1,435 among students and 320 among staff (788 individuals were not identified). This is an increase of 68 more cases from the previous day.

In the last 14 days, the province indicates there are 512 cases reported among students and 78 cases among staff (307 individuals were not identified) — totaling 897 cases.

The COVID-19 cases are currently from 580 out of 4,828 schools in the province.

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

There have been a total of 488 confirmed cases within child care centres and homes — an increase of 20 (eight new child cases and 12 new staff cases). Out of 5,240 child care centres in Ontario, 118 currently have cases and 22 centres are closed.

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