Ontario reports more than 2,000 new COVID-19 cases for 2nd straight day
Posted December 16, 2020 10:08 am.
Last Updated December 16, 2020 2:16 pm.
This article is more than 5 years old.
For the second straight day, Ontario is reporting more than 2,000 new cases of COVID-19 on Wednesday.
Provincial health officials confirmed 2,139 new infections, a drop from the record high of 2,275 cases the day before.
However, Tuesday’s total was the result of a one-time change in when the province extracted data from the provincial health units. There were no caveats attached to Wednesday’s count.
Toronto reported a record number 780 new cases – the second straight day more than 700 new infections were recorded, followed by Peel Region with 528, and York Region with 148.
“Today, we have reached a grim milestone: over 50,000 cases of COVID-19 have been recorded in our city since the beginning of the pandemic,” said Joe Cressy, councillor and chair of the Board of Health, in reacting to the Toronto numbers.
“In the past month alone, weekly average case counts have risen by 40 percent, while hospitalizations have increased by 36 percent,” said Cressy, who called for enhanced strict public health measures to reduce contact between people, and cooperation at both the individual and collective levels.
“As we look ahead to January and February, we have to prepare ourselves for what could be the worst months of this pandemic, in terms of case counts and hospitalizations. …But if we fail to act, I fear that we are headed towards a very dark and difficult winter.”
Another 43 people have died from the virus as the provincial total surpassed 4,000 deaths.
In the province’s long-term care homes, 728 residents currently have COVID-19 and 22 new deaths were reported Wednesday.
The province says 135 of its 626 long-term care homes are experiencing an outbreak.
Just under 50,000 tests were completed in the previous 24 hour period with more than 65,000 cases still pending.
Hospitalizations continue to creep up towards 1,000 with 932 patients while the number of those in ICU rose to 256.
The province also reported 223 new COVID-19 cases related to schools, including at least 188 among students.
Those bring the number of schools with a reported case to 933 out of Ontario’s 4,828 publicly funded schools.
Files from The Canadian Press were used in this report
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