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Ontario’s confirmed COVID-19 cases have nearly doubled since yesterday with 351 more lab-confirmed cases reported this morning.
Yesterday, March 29, 211 cases were reported. The total test-confirmed COVID-19 cases in Ontario is now 1,706, including those who have recovered or died from the virus.The province is reporting 23 deaths attributed to the virus, but the provincial website states its death toll is likely behind what regional health units are reporting.
York Region public health is reporting a total of 212 confirmed COVID-19 cases this morning, increasing by seven since last night, including two more cases in Aurora, one more in East Gwillimbury, two more in Markham, and two in Vaughan.
The province is now reporting 431 recoveries from the virus since changing the standard for a recovery. “Resolved” cases now refer to those who have confirmed negative tests, or those who have been recovering at home for 14 days or more.
In Ontario, there have been 857 confirmed cases of COVID-19 in males, and 837 in females. There were 42 people under 19 who tested positive for the virus and 1,319 between the ages of 20 and 64. There are 343 cases confirmed in patients 65 and over.
There have been at least 48,461 tests done in Ontario.
Of the confirmed cases reported by the province (1,706) 26.3 of them travelled in the 14 days prior to becoming ill, 9.6 per cent had close contact, 16.2 per cent had neither travelled nor had close contact, and 47.9 per cent have exposure information pending.
Almost 10 per cent of patients confirmed COVID-19 positive have been hospitalized.
Dr. Theresa Tam, Canada’s chief public health officer, said during an update yesterday she is keeping a close eye on Ontario, Quebec and Alberta — provinces where the coronavirus is spreading within communities — to see if there will be a decrease in the rate of new confirmed cases, as British Columbia has seen.
She said this week will be crucial in determining trends in the virus’ spread in each province.
There are more than 6,000 cases of confirmed COVID-19 in Canada, and at least 60 deaths have been reported. However, that number is behind since there are about 30 deaths in Ontario with about 10 deaths reported on the weekend and attributed to COVID-19.
From Wednesday to Sunday this week, Ontario’s new cases doubled with 100 new cases reported on Wednesday (March 25) and 211 reported yesterday (March 29).
The increased number of confirmed cases could, however, be related to more expedited test results.
Dr. David Williams, chief medical officer of health for Ontario, said the province was able to complete about 4,100 tests per day, just shy of a goal for 5,000 tests which was set for the end of this week.
"We're getting close to that number," Williams said.
Dr. Barbara Yaffe, deputy medical officer of health, said they're aiming to have the capacity for close to 19,000 tests per day by mid-April as new testing centres open.
— With files from Debora Kelly
