Ontario reports 323 new coronavirus cases and 17 new deaths
The Province of Ontario confirms there are 17 more COVID-19 related deaths and 323 new cases, as of Saturday morning.
This marks a slight decrease in new cases compared to Friday’s 344.
The province has also been ramping up testing over the last three days.
There were 20,640 tests done from the previous day — some of the highest numbers of tests so far.
On Friday, 18,525 tests were completed.
This marks an increase from Thursday’s 17,615 and Wednesday’s 15,133 completed tests.
Premier Doug Ford wanted the province to test 16,000 people daily starting on May 6. Testing had been falling short recently, until the last three days.
According to the Minister of Health’s office, an increase in asymptomatic testing in Ontario is already underway as the province is deploying mobile testing teams to COVID-19 hotspots across the province.
To date, a total of 701,327 have been tested across Ontario.
The province’s total coronavirus case count now sit at 27,533 but 77.6% of the cases have been resolved, with 21,353 patients recovered.
A total of 2,247 people have died from coronavirus in Ontario, and there are 12,760 cases currently under investigation.
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According to the Public Health Ontario Daily Epidemiologic Summary (iPHIS), there are 190 outbreaks in long-term care homes, with 1,423 resident deaths. Around 18.2% of cases in all of Ontario come from these facilities.
However, the Ministry of Long-Term Care Daily Report says there have been 114 outbreaks reported in long-term care homes with 1,636 resident deaths.
According to Dr. Barbara Yaffe, Ontario relies on local public health units to report on the coronavirus, both in the community and in long-term care homes, through iPHIS, in which there is a delay in the data being received.
At the same time, the Ministry of Long-Term Care has started collecting information about coronavirus in long-term care homes through its network of inspectors.
On Tuesday, Ford said the province is investigating long-term care homes after reports from military members helping in long-term care homes show “heartbreaking and horrific” concerns.
The provincial government will also take over five more long-term care homes that Ford is “most concerned” about and will perform “rigorous inspections” of 13 more homes over the next three weeks.
Government of Ontario
The Greater Toronto Area public health units account for more than half of the cases at 65.8%.
Of the total cases, 43.6% are male and 55.6% are female, with 40% of cases age 60 years and older.
To date, there are 801 hospitalized, with 121 in ICU, and 84 patients on ventilators.
Government of Ontario
The daily summary is based on data reported by the 34 public health units across Ontario and recorded in the province’s integrated Public Health Information System, according to the Ontario government.
iPHIS is the Ministry of Health’s disease reporting system where data is regularly updated, and where each daily summary is pulled at 4 pm the previous day.
Last week, the province also entered Stage 1 of its framework to reopen the economy, allowing certain businesses and recreational activities to reopen. Despite this though, Ford’s government extended its emergency orders for another 10 days to help stop the spread of the virus.
The emergency orders were previously extended to May 29 and now are currently in force until June 9, 2020.
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