Toronto recoveries outpace new coronavirus infections

Toronto is reporting 13 new COVID-19 confirmed cases on Wednesday, with six probable cases, well under the total amount of recoveries seen in the same period.

Toronto’s Medical Officer of Health, Dr. Eileen de Villa, announced the new figures with Mayor John Tory at a press conference. In total, the city has 15,338 cases of the coronavirus with 1,152 deaths.

Currently, 13,785 have recovered from the virus, an increase of 39 since the day before.

The province reported 76 new cases earlier morning, and those numbers are a tally of the previous day, typically being released at 10 am, while Toronto’s figures are reported later at 3 pm.

“Today is a significant day for us, as Premier Ford announced earlier today, we will join many communities around the province in reopening at 12:01 on Friday,” de Villa said. “We are making good progress in stopping the spread of COVID-19 in our city.”

The numbers are an increase from the totals shared Tuesday evening, which showed only one new confirmed case of the virus, while Ontario reported 76 new cases, the lowest number since March 22.

The news comes as the province announced that Toronto would be given permission to enter Stage 3 of the economic reopening on Friday, July 31 at 12:01 am.

“Over the past five months, Torontonians have come together and made tremendous sacrifices to stop the spread of COVID-19 in our city,” said Toronto Board of Health Chair Joe Cressy in a statement.

“Our collective efforts have been successful, not only at flattening the curve and protecting our health care system, but also in getting daily case counts down.”