Ontario reports lowest new coronavirus cases since march
The Province of Ontario confirms there have been 12 more COVID-19 related deaths and 203 new cases as of Thursday morning.
This marks the lowest number since March 31, when Ontario reported 211 cases.
The number of new cases is a decrease from Wednesday’s 251.
Tuesday’s numbers showed 230 new cases, while Monday’s showed 243 — marking today as the fourth day in a row cases have remained below 300.
The decrease in cases comes as Ontario allows most regions in the province to enter the next stage of reopening the economy on Friday — although Toronto is one of the regions not included.
Ontario has also officially extended the state of emergency until June 30.
According to the latest data, a total of 24,341 tests were completed, up from Wednesday’s 19,941, Tuesday’s 13,509, and Monday’s 15,357.
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Premier Doug Ford wanted the province to test 16,000 people daily starting on May 6. Testing has been consistently fluctuating around this goal.
The province released its expanded testing strategy, which includes deploying mobile teams to coronavirus hotspots and testing more workplaces, regions, and neighbourhoods.
To date, a total of 924,680 have been tested across Ontario.
The province’s total is now 31,544, but 82.1% of the cases have been resolved, with 25,885 patients recovered.
A total of 2,487 people have died from coronavirus in Ontario, and there are 16,359 cases currently under investigation.
According to the Public Health Ontario Daily Epidemiologic Summary (iPHIS), there are 77 outbreaks in long-term care homes, with 1,952 resident deaths. Around 16.8% of cases in all of Ontario come from residents at these facilities.
Province of Ontario
However, the Ministry of Long-Term Care Daily Report says there have been 65 outbreaks reported in long-term care homes with 1,772 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 May 26, 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 coming weeks.
The Greater Toronto Area public health units account for more than half of the cases at 67.4%.
Of the total cases, 14,179 are male and 17,106 are female, with 11,833 of cases age 60 years and older.
To date, there are 538 hospitalized, with 120 in ICU, and 87 patients on ventilators.
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.
Province of Ontario
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.
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