Ontario reports 1,373 new coronavirus cases, 35 more deaths

Ontario reported 1,373 new cases of coronavirus on Wednesday, bringing the provincial total to 107,883.

Wednesday’s case count is an increase from Tuesday’s which saw 1,009 cases, although that was an underestimation due to technical issues, the Ontario government said. On Monday, 1,589 cases were recorded, an overestimation on that day.

According to Wednesday’s provincial report, 445 cases were recorded in Toronto, 415 in Peel Region, 136 in York Region, 61 in Waterloo Region, 49 in Hamilton and 48 in Windsor-Essex.

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

The death toll in the province has risen to 3,554 as 35 more deaths were reported — the highest increase in deaths in the second wave.

Ontario has 523 people hospitalized due to COVID-19 (down by 11 from the previous day), with 159 patients in an intensive care unit (unchanged) and 106 patients in ICUs on a ventilator (up by 15). Hospitalizations have overall steadily increased over the past several weeks.

More than 36,000 tests were processed in the last 24 hours. The government has previously said it hoped to increase testing capacity to 68,000 per day by mid-November.

There is currently a backlog of 44,950 tests that need results. A total of 6,020,852 tests have been completed since the pandemic began.

Meanwhile, 91,550 Ontarians have recovered from COVID-19, the disease caused by the virus, which is 85 per cent of known cases. Resolved cases increased by 1,476 from the previous day.

There were more recoveries than new cases on Wednesday.

Active cases in Ontario now stand at 12,779, down from the previous day at 12,917.

The seven-day average is now at 1,389 which is down from last Wednesday’s at 1,422.

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

• 52,315 people are male — an increase of 717 cases.
• 54,962 people are female — an increase of 649 cases.
• 12,712 people are 19 and under — an increase of 168 cases.
• 39,247 people are 20 to 39 — an increase of 557 cases.
• 30,755 people are 40 to 59 — an increase of 392 cases.
• 15,760 people are 60 to 79 — an increase of 175 cases.
• 9,399 people are 80 and over — an increase of 85 cases.

The province notes that not all cases have a reported age or gender.

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 2,173 deaths reported among residents and patients in long-term care homes across Ontario which is an increase of 18 deaths. Eight health-care workers and staff in long-term care homes have died which has remained unchanged for months.

There are 104 current outbreaks in homes, an increase of two.

The ministry also indicated there are currently 542 active cases among long-term care residents and 453 active cases among staff — up by eight cases and up by two cases respectively in the last day.

Ontario child care centres and schools

Meanwhile, government figures show there have been a total of 4,269 school-related COVID-19 cases in Ontario — 2,609 among students and 573 among staff (1,087individuals were not identified). This is an increase of 162 more cases over a 24-hour period.

In the last 14 days, the province indicates there are 857 cases reported among students and 186 cases among staff (150 individuals were not identified) — totaling 1,193 cases.

The COVID-19 cases are currently from 688 out of 4,828 schools in the province.

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

There have been a total of 721 confirmed cases within child care centres and homes — an increase of 23 (11 child cases and 12 staff cases.) Out of 5,249 child care centres in Ontario, 143 currently have cases and 21 centres are closed.

Numbers for cases in schools and child care centres are updated weekdays only, at 10:30 a.m. On Wednesday’s, numbers are included from Monday afternoon to Tuesday afternoon.