Ontario reports 100 new coronavirus deaths, some unaccounted for during data cleanup

EDITOR’S NOTE: Middlesex-London Public Health Unit told Global News due to the data cleaning initiative by the province, Ontario’s death totals are now in line with what they have been reporting as part of their daily dashboard.

Ontario is reporting 2,998 new cases of the coronavirus on Friday, bringing the provincial total to 231,308.

Friday’s case count is lower than Thursday’s, which saw 3,326 new infections. On Wednesday, 2,961 new cases were recorded and 2,903 on Tuesday.

“Locally, there are 800 new cases in Toronto, 618 in Peel, 250 in York Region, 161 in Waterloo and 153 in Niagara,” Health Minister Christine Elliott said.

The death toll in the province has risen to 5,289, after 100 more deaths were reported — marking the highest number of daily deaths.

However, the Ontario government noted some of the deaths included in Friday’s report are from one public health unit and are also from earlier in the pandemic that the provincial database had missed.

“Due to a data cleaning initiative, 46 deaths reported by Middlesex-London Health Unit that occurred earlier in the pandemic are included in today’s report,” the government said. “We send our deepest condolences to all those who have lost a loved one to COVID-19.”

Middlesex-London Public Health Unit said those deaths have already been reported in their reporting.

Subtracting those previous deaths, the one-day death toll would be 54 and is around what Ontario has been seeing over the last few weeks.

Ontario reported 1,647 people hospitalized with COVID-19 (down by 10 from the previous day), with 387 patients in an intensive care unit (down by one) and 280 patients in ICUs on a ventilator (unchanged).

The government said a single-day record number of 76,472 tests were processed in the last 24 hours. There is currently a backlog of 63,728 tests awaiting results. A total of 8,791,388 tests have been completed since the start of the pandemic.

Test positivity — the percentage of tests that come back positive — for Friday was 4.6 per cent, down from Thursday’s 5.1 per cent and down from one week ago when it was 6.2 per cent.

As of 8 p.m. Thursday, the province has administered 174,630 doses of the COVID-19 vaccine. A total of 17,094 people have been fully vaccinated so far with two doses.

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Meanwhile, 197,194 Ontarians have recovered from COVID-19 which is about 85 per cent of known cases. Resolved cases increased by 3,380 from the previous day.

There were more resolved cases than new cases on Friday.

Active cases in Ontario now stand at 28,825 — down from the previous day when it was 29,307, but up from last Friday at 28,203.

The seven-day average has now reached 3,273, down from yesterday at 3,452 and down from last week at 3,394.

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

• 112,976 people are male — an increase of 1,451 cases.
• 117,024 people are female — an increase of 1,539 cases.
• 30,260 people are 19 and under — an increase of 415 cases.
• 84,512 people are 20 to 39 — an increase of 1,159 cases.
• 66,601 people are 40 to 59 — an increase of 860 cases.
• 33,320 people are 60 to 79 — an increase of 396 cases.
• 16,565 people are 80 and over — an increase of 170 cases.
• The province notes that not all cases have a reported age or gender.

The province 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. Data may also be pulled at different times.

Here is a breakdown of the total deaths related to COVID-19 by age:

• Deaths reported in ages 19 and under: 1
• Deaths reported in ages 20 to 39: 20
• Deaths reported in ages 40 to 59: 203
• Deaths reported in ages 60 to 79: 1,415
• Deaths reported in ages 80 and older: 3,649
• The province notes there may be a reporting delay for deaths.

Ontario long-term care homes

According to the Ministry of Long-Term Care, there have been 3,085 deaths reported among residents and patients in long-term care homes across Ontario which is an increase of 22 deaths. Ten virus-related deaths in total have been reported among staff.

There are 243 current outbreaks in homes, a decrease of one from the previous day.

The ministry also indicated there are currently 1,650 active cases among long-term care residents and 1,336 active cases among staff — up by 47 cases and up by 39 cases, respectively, in the last day.