Ontario reports record number of COVID-19 cases for 2nd straight day

For the second straight day, Ontario is reporting a new record high of COVID-19 cases with 1,328.

There were 1,132 new infections reported Saturday as the seven-day rolling average of new cases continues to climb past 1,000.

It’s the third straight day more than 1,000 new coronavirus cases were recorded and the fourth time in the last seven days.

More than half of the new cases continue to come from the hotspots of Toronto with 434 and Peel with 385. York Region reported 105 new cases with 71 in Ottawa, 68 in Hamilton and 56 in Durham.

The worrisome trend comes just as the province implemented a new colour-coded assessment system that one public health unit has rejected as too lenient.

Provincial health officials completed 37,577 tests in the previous 24-hour period, pushing the positivity rate up to 3.5 per cent. There were more than 35,700 backlogged cases.

Another 13 deaths were also recorded, the sixth straight day of double-digit increases, raising the provincial total to 3,233. Seven of those deaths were from long-term care settings.

Provincial health officials say there are 374 hospitalizations, however approximately 40 hospitals did not submit data which has been the case on most weekends. “We anticipate the number of hospitalized patients may increase when reporting compliance increases,” read a note attached to the daily update.

There were also no updates on the number of patients in ICU and on ventilators.