Ontario reported 1,426 new cases of coronavirus on Wednesday, yet another new single-day record, bringing the provincial total to 88,209.
Wednesday’s case count beats out Tuesday’s which saw 1,388 cases and was the previous single-day high. On Monday, 1,242 new cases were reported.
This is also the sixth straight day that daily case counts have been above 1,000.
Ontario Health Minister Christine Elliott said 468 new cases were recorded in Peel Region, 384 in Toronto, 180 in York Region, 63 in Durham Region, and 62 in Hamilton. For the first time in weeks, Peel Region has more cases than Toronto in the daily provincial breakdown.
All other public health units in Ontario reported under 60 new cases.
The death toll in the province has risen to 3,275 as 15 more deaths were reported.
More than 36,700 tests were processed in the last 24 hours — which is about 7,000 more tests than on Tuesday. The government has previously 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 34,460 tests that need results. A total of 5,476,811 tests have been completed since the pandemic began.
Meanwhile, 74,303 Ontarians have recovered from COVID-19, the disease caused by the virus, which is 84 per cent of known cases. Resolved cases increased by 886 from the previous day. Active cases in Ontario now stand at 10,631.
Ontario has 424 people hospitalized due to COVID-19 (up by two from the previous day), with 88 patients in an intensive care unit (up by six) and 57 patients in ICUs on a ventilator (up by three). Hospitalizations have overall steadily increased over the past several weeks.
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Here is a breakdown of the total cases in Ontario by gender and age:
- 42,569 people are male — an increase of 730 cases.
- 45,205 people are female — an increase of 690 cases.
- 9,797 people are 19 and under — an increase of 223 cases.
- 31,889 people are 20 to 39 — an increase of 536 cases.
- 25,139 people are 40 to 59 — an increase of 408 cases.
- 13,008 people are 60 to 79 — an increase of 173 cases.
- 8,360 people are 80 and over — an increase of 81 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.
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 2,041 deaths reported among residents and patients in long-term care homes across Ontario which is an increase of 24 deaths. A discrepancy between the daily death increase reported by the province and the death increase reported from the ministry can be due to a delay in uploading it into the system. Eight health-care workers and staff in long-term care homes have died which has remained unchanged for months.
There are 93 current outbreaks in homes, a decrease of two.
The ministry also indicated there are currently 683 active cases among long-term care residents and 410 active cases among staff — up by 36 cases and 11 cases respectively in the last day.
Ontario child care centres and schools
Meanwhile, government figures show there have been a total of 3,063 school-related COVID-19 cases in Ontario — 1,743 among students and 383 among staff (937 individuals were not identified). This is an increase of 198 more cases from the previous day — the highest single-day increase since schools reopened.
In the last 14 days, the province indicates there are 616 cases reported among students and 104 cases among staff (313 individuals were not identified) — totaling 1,033 cases.
The COVID-19 cases are currently from 654 out of 4,828 schools in the province.
Two schools in Ontario are currently closed as a result of positive cases, the government indicated.
There have been a total of 547 confirmed cases within child care centres and homes — an increase of 19 (six new child cases and 13 staff cases.) Out of 5,243 child care centres in Ontario, 126 currently have cases and 20 centres are closed.
Numbers for cases in schools and child care centres is updated weekdays only, at 10:30 a.m.
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