Ontario's daily COVID case count jumps above 1,000 for first time

Ontario Public Health is reporting 1,042 new cases of COVID-19 today, which surpasses the previous daily high set yesterday when 978 cases were announced in the province. 

Health Minister Christine Elliott says the majority of the new cases announced Sunday are in Toronto (309), Peel Region (289), York Region (117), Ottawa (80), and Durham Region (52).

There have now been 70,373 cases in Ontario since the pandemic began, of which 60,160 people have recovered, including 736 since the last report. 

Seven more people have died, bringing the death toll to 3,093.

Across Ontario, there are 7,120 active cases. 

There are 278 patients who are hospitalized with the virus, which is 16 fewer than noted in Saturday's report. However, health officials point out that, as typically happens on weekends, several hospitals — approximately 40 — did not submit data for Friday, Oct. 23.

"We anticipate the number of hospitalized patients may increase when reporting compliance increases," according to a note in today's summary.

Seventy-nine people are being treated in intensive care, which is an increase of three from yesterday, and 54 are on ventilators, which is an increase of one.

In the previous 24-hour period since the last report, 38,769 tests were completed, bringing the overall total to just under 4.91 million. There are 23,601 tests that remain under investigation, which is a significant reduction from yesterday when 30,922 tests were pending.