The Province of Ontario confirms there have been 11 more COVID-19 related deaths and 251 new cases as of Wednesday morning.
The number of new cases is a slight increase compared to Tuesday’s 230 and Monday’s 243 — but is the third 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 19,941 tests were completed — a significant increase from Tuesday’s 13,509, Monday’s 15,357, and Sunday’s 19,374.
- See also:
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 900,339 have been tested across Ontario.
The province’s total is now 31,341 but 81% of the cases have been resolved, with 25,280 patients recovered.
A total of 2,475 people have died from coronavirus in Ontario, and there are 13,897 cases currently under investigation.
According to the Public Health Ontario Daily Epidemiologic Summary (iPHIS), there are 75 outbreaks in long-term care homes, with 1,591 resident deaths. Around 16.9% of cases in all of Ontario come from these facilities.
However, the Ministry of Long-Term Care Daily Report says there have been 68 outbreaks reported in long-term care homes with 1,766 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, 44.9% are male and 54.3% are female, with 37.6% of cases age 60 years and older.
To date, there are 580 hospitalized, with 118 in ICU, and 86 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.
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.