22 more deaths with 478 confirmed new coronavirus cases in Ontario

The Province of Ontario confirms there have been 22 more COVID-19 related deaths, with 478 new cases, bringing the province’s total up to 6,237, as of Friday morning.

Compared to Thursday’s 483 confirmed new cases, there is a slight decrease in the new confirmed cases.

So far, a total of 222 people have died from coronavirus in the province and 2,574 patients have recovered.

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There are 1,598 cases currently under investigation.

On Thursday, Canada’s top health officials announced they are forecasting up to 700 deaths and 31,850 coronavirus cases across the country by April 16.

Province of Ontario

Of the total cases, 45.3%  are male, 54.1% are female and 37.6% of cases are 60 years of age and older.

To date there are 673 hospitalized, with 260 in ICU and 217 patients are on ventilators.

According to the province, 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 (iPHIS).

iPHIS is the Ministry of Health’s disease reporting system where data is regularly updated, where data for each day’s summary will be pulled from at 4 pm the previous day.

On Wednesday, Premier Doug Ford vowed to ramp up testing to 13,000 a day starting April 9.

He called the number of current testing of 2,000 to 3,000 per day, “absolutely unacceptable.”

“My patience has run thin. We have the testing capabilities now to test 13,000 people a day. We need to start testing 13,000 people,” Ford said during his daily press conference. “The days are done of 2,000 or 3,000 tests being done.”

Ford said he spoke with the Command Table, which is working on coronavirus responses, asking them to increase testing, especially with long-term care facilities, frontline workers, healthcare workers and other essential workers — like policemen and firefighters.

As of April 10, there are 20,765 total cases in Canada with 509 reported deaths.