Ontario reports 59 new coronavirus deaths as known cases approach 20K

The Province of Ontario confirms there are 59 more COVID-19 related deaths and 346 new cases as of Saturday morning.

Fewer new cases were reported Saturday compared to Friday, when the province announced 477 new cases.

The province has now seen 19,944 known cases of coronavirus.

So far, 14,383 patients with coronavirus have recovered (72%), meaning only about a quarter of the known cases are active infections.

The new deaths Saturday bring Ontario’s death toll to 1,599.

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According to the Public Health Ontario Daily Epidemiologic Summary (iPHIS), there are 122 long-term care homes in the province with active coronavirus outbreaks.

A total of 175 outbreaks at long-term care homes have been reported (although some have been resolved), and 1,187 care home residents have died from the virus. That’s 37 more deaths than the day before.

Government of Ontario

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, of 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.

The Greater Toronto Area public health units account for more than half of the cases at 61.5%.

Of the total cases, 42% of patients are male and 57.2% of patients are female, with 43.3% of cases happening in people age 60 years and older.

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 (iPHIS), 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.