Ontario sees uptick in new COVID-19 cases, nearly half in Toronto
Posted October 5, 2020 10:22 am.
Last Updated October 5, 2020 4:18 pm.
This article is more than 5 years old.
Ontario is reporting a jump in new COVID-19 cases on Monday with 615, and five new deaths.
On Sunday, the province reported 566 new cases.
There are 541 resolved cases, and nearly 38,200 tests have been completed.
Toronto is home to nearly half of the new cases with 289, followed by Peel Region with 88 new cases, Ottawa has 81, and 47 are in the York Region.
58 per cent of the new cases are in people under the age of 40.
There is a total of 54,814 confirmed cases of COVID-19 in the province to date.
This uptick in numbers comes the same day walk-in testing at centres are paused so the health ministry can play catch up with its backlog of 68,006 tests, as of Monday morning.
The provincial government says a shortage of diagnostic technicians is contributing to a backlog in COVID-19 testing.
Premier Doug Ford also says a worldwide shortage in the chemicals needed to process tests is also part the problem.
When testing centres reopen on Tuesday, you will have to plan ahead and make an appointment with a testing centre or pharmacy.
The province has said it hopes to increase its testing and processing capacity to 50,000 tests per day by the middle of this month, and 68,000 per day by mid- November.
