Ontario reports 4,362 new cases of COVID-19 Saturday, 34 new deaths
Posted April 17, 2021 10:06 am.
Last Updated April 17, 2021 8:50 pm.
This article is more than 5 years old.
Ontario reported 4,362 new cases of COVID-19 Saturday as the number of patients in hospital reached a new high since the start of the pandemic.
While the new case count was a slight drop from the previous day, the number of patients in hospital due to the novel coronavirus rose above 2,000 for the first time. Of those, 726 are in intensive care and 501 are on a ventilator.
To help manage the record number of hospitalizations, Public Safety Minister Bill Blair announced Saturday that two federal mobile health units would remain in the province until at least the end of June. The fully equipped military-style field hospitals are currently at Sunnybrook in Toronto and Hamilton Health Sciences.
Officials said 34 more people have died due to the virus, the highest single-day death count since Feb. 19, when 47 people were reported as dying from the virus
Ontario’s total number of COVID-19 related deaths now stands at 7,698.
“Locally, there are 1,162 new cases in Toronto, 936 in Peel, 430 in York Region, 301 in Durham and 251 in Ottawa,” Health Minister Christine Elliott said in a tweet Saturday morning.
The province’s total COVID-19 case count now stands at 412,745, with 364,353 people having now recovered from the virus.
The government added that 3,751,316 doses of the COVID-19 vaccine have been administered as of Friday.
