Ontario reports highest single-day COVID-19 case count since pandemic began

The Government of Ontario confirmed 4,456 new COVID-19 cases on Saturday morning, the highest single-day count since the pandemic began.

Twenty-one additional virus-related deaths were also reported.

Today’s cases are higher than Saturday’s 3,813, Friday’s 4,227, Thursday’s 3,295, Wednesday’s 3,251, Tuesday’s 3,065, Monday’s 2,938, and Sunday’ 3,041.

Of the newly announced cases, 1,353 are in Toronto, 860 are in Peel, 444 are in York Region, 377 are in Ottawa, and 329 are in Durham.

• See also:
  • What’s open and closed during Ontario’s Stay-at-Home order
  • How Toronto Police will enforce the Stay-at-Home order
  • Ontario issues two emergency orders to increase ICU capacity

There are currently 1,513 people hospitalized with COVID-19 in Ontario, including 605 who are in the ICU – the highest the province has seen since the the start of the pandemic.

Due to soaring admissions, Ontario’s hospitals were told to “ramp down” on elective and non-emergency surgeries in order to preserve critical care and human resource capacity.

On Friday, the province issued two emergency orders to help increase the number of available ICU beds. One order allow hospitals to transfer patients to other sites without their consent during “major surge events.”

The other grants Home and Community Care Support Services organizations as well as Ontario Health the authority to redeploy health care workers to hospitals that are at-risk of becoming overwhelmed.

Health Minister Christine Elliott said nearly 56,400 tests were completed, and 3,139,743 doses of the COVID-19 vaccine have been administered.

Ontario is reporting 4,456 cases of #COVID19 and nearly 56,400 tests completed. Locally, there are 1,353 new cases in Toronto, 860 in Peel, 444 in York Region, 377 in Ottawa and 329 in Durham.

— Christine Elliott (@celliottability) April 11, 2021

Toronto has expanded vaccine eligibility at its city-run clinics to people as young as 50 that  live in certain hotspot neighbourhoods.

Outside of those identified postal codes, those who are 60 and above are eligible to book a vaccination appointment at the city’s clinics.

As well, people who are aged 55 and over can book an appointment to receive the AstraZeneca vaccine at designated pharmacies.

Ontario is currently under a province-wide Stay-at-Home. The measure went into effect on April 8 and will be in place for at least four weeks.

Premier Doug Ford has said he hopes to have 40% of adults across the province vaccinated by the  time the order ends.

To date, Ontario has seen 386,608 COVID-19 cases and 7,552 virus-related deaths.