Ontario reports 1,913 new coronavirus cases, 46 more deaths

Ontario reported 1,913 new cases of the coronavirus on Tuesday, bringing the provincial total to 242,277.

However, the Ontario government said due to a “technical issue” there was “likely” underreporting in cases from Toronto Public Health.

Toronto announced 550 new cases when the local public health unit reported 815, 1,035 and 903 new infections over the last several days.

Still, Tuesday’s report marks the first time a single-day increase in cases has been below 2,000 since Dec. 28, when 1,939 were reported and is the lowest increase in cases since Dec. 13, when 1,677 were reported.

“Locally, there are 550 new cases in Toronto, 346 in Peel, and 235 in York Region,” Health Minister Christine Elliott said.

The death toll in the province has risen to 5,479 after 46 more deaths were announced.

Meanwhile, 209,183 Ontarians have recovered from COVID-19 which is about 86 per cent of known cases. Resolved cases increased by 2,873 from the previous day.

There were more resolved cases on Tuesday than new cases.

Active cases in Ontario now stand at 27,615 — down from the previous day when it was 28,621, and down from last Tuesday at 30,141.

Ontario reported 1,626 people hospitalized with COVID-19 (increase of 55), with 400 patients in an intensive care unit (up by six) and 292 patients in ICUs on a ventilator (down by 9).

The government said 34,531 tests were processed in the last 24 hours, which is the lowest that figure has been since Dec. 29. There is currently a backlog of 36,750 tests awaiting results. A total of 9,000,278 tests have been completed since the start of the pandemic.

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Test positivity — the percentage of tests that come back positive — for Tuesday was 6.8 per cent, up from Tuesday at 6.6 per cent, but down from one week ago when it was 7.8 per cent.

As of 8 p.m. Monday, the province has administered 224,134 COVID-19 vaccine doses.

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.

According to the Ministry of Long-Term Care, there have been 3,179 deaths reported among residents and patients in long-term care homes across Ontario, which is an increase of 29. There are currently 254 outbreaks in long-term care homes.

There are 1,488 active cases among long-term care residents and 1,241 among staff.