Ontario reports new daily high record of COVID-19 cases

The Government of Ontario confirmed 2,447 new COVID-19 cases on Thursday morning, the highest daily count since the beginning of the pandemic.

An increase from the 2,408 cases reported on Wednesday, this is the tenth day in a row cases have been above 2,000. Yesterday’s cases were the previous high of the week, with Tuesday’s 2,202 and Monday’s 2,123.

Of the newly announced cases, 646 are in Toronto, 502 are in Peel, 263 are in York Region, and 172 are in Windsor-Essex County.

The province is also reporting 49 virus-related deaths.

According to Health Minister Christine Elliott, over 64,000 tests were completed, an increase from the nearly 56,700 tests completed Wednesday, Tuesday’s 58,200 and Monday’s 45,300.

Ontario is reporting 2,447 cases of #COVID19 and nearly 64,600 tests completed. Locally, there are 646 new cases in Toronto, 502 in Peel, 263 in York Region and 173 in Windsor-Essex County.

— Christine Elliott (@celliottability) December 24, 2020

On Monday, Premier Doug Ford announced that all of Ontario would be placed into a lockdown as of 12:01 am on December 26.

The measures will be in effect in northern Ontario for 14 days and in the southern part of the province for 28 days. The time-limited restrictions will be evaluated throughout their implementation, rather than when they are set to expire.

Five health regions across the province are already under lockdown.

Toronto and Peel Region have both been in the grey zone of Ontario’s COVID-19 framework since November 23. York Region and Windsor-Essex County entered a lockdown on December 14, and Hamilton on December 21.

To date, Ontario has seen a total of 165,110 cases, with 141,023 cases deemed recoveries and there have been 4,278 virus-related deaths.