After a brief drop yesterday, the daily increase in COVID-19 cases is again the highest it’s been since the pandemic began.
Ontario Public Health reported 568 new cases today (a 5.7 per cent increase), which is a few cases higher than the last daily record of 564 cases reported April 17. The province also reported an additional 39 deaths since yesterday.
Testing rates are also higher than ever with 9,643 tests completed for this reporting period. There are 5,736 tests awaiting results, and in total there have been 156,097 tests completed in Ontario.
There have now been 10,578 COVID-19 cases confirmed through lab testing in Ontario, including 5,209 recoveries (49.2 per cent) and 553 deaths (5.2 per cent). There are now 809 patients hospitalized with COVID-19, and of those 247 people are in intensive care units. There are 196 people with COVID-19 on ventilators.
The province is reporting 112 outbreaks at long-term care homes in Ontario, and 31 outbreaks at hospitals.
There have been 240 long-term care home patient and resident deaths attributed to COVID-19 and one staff death. There have been 1,179 (11.1 per cent of all cases) COVID-19 cases confirmed in health care workers, though it is not clear how many of those were transmitted to staff through their workplaces.
The province is reporting about 28.4 per cent of cases are community transmission, and 11.7 per cent were confirmed in people with a travel history. Another 17.9 per cent of cases are attributed to close contact, and for the remaining 42 per cent the source of transmission is pending.
All data included in Ontario Public Health’s daily report is current as of 4 p.m. yesterday.
Yesterday, Ontario Premier Doug Ford said updated public health modelling numbers will be revealed tomorrow, which is likely to impact the public health measures in place over the coming weeks and months.
The premier along with Ross Romano, minister of colleges and universities, also announced $20 million in research funding dedicated to helping develop a vaccine for COVID-19.
The province says the COVID-19 Rapid Research Fund is now seeking proposals from research institutions, post-secondary institutions and non-profit scientific partners in order to advance medical research and develop tools and resources to combat COVID-19 and other infectious diseases.
The Porcupine Health Unit, which covers Timmins and the surrounding area, continues to have the highest rate of confirmed cases per 100,000 population among other health units in Northern Ontario.
According to today's report, which includes data from Jan. 15 to April 18, the number of cases at other Northern Ontario health units, as well as the rate of confirmed cases per 100,000 population are:
- Algoma Public Health - 12 cases, rate of 10.5 per 100,000 population
- North Bay Parry Sound District Health Unit - 13 cases, rate of 10 per 100,000 population
- Porcupine Health Unit - 48, rate of 57.5 per 100,000 population (the health unit has reported 49 cases in the Timmins area)
- Public Health Sudbury and Districts - 41 cases, rate of 20.6 per 100,000 population
- Timiskaming Health Unit - 10 cases, rate of 30.6 per 100,000
- Thunder Bay District Health Unit - 47 cases, rate of 31.3 per 100,000 population
- Northwestern Health Unit - 12 cases, rate of 13.7 per 100,000 population
In Northeastern Ontario, there are currently 124 confirmed cases, and the rate is 22.2 per 100,000 population. In Northwestern Ontario, there are 59 cases and a rate of 24.8. The provincial rate per 100,000 population is 71.2.
