Ontario reports more than 2,000 COVID-19 cases for the first time
Posted December 15, 2020 10:22 am.
Last Updated December 15, 2020 9:04 pm.
This article is more than 5 years old.
Ontario is reporting a single day record of 2,275 COVID-19 cases on Tuesday.
It’s the first time since the onset of the pandemic that the province has reported more than 2,000 daily cases. The previous record was 1,983 cases reported on Thursday.
The province says these numbers are higher than usual due to a change in the data extraction process.
A statement from the province reads:
“PHO (Public Health Ontario) changed their data extraction process and updated their data extraction time to 1:00pm (from 10:30am) for health units using CCM. This resulted in a one-time increase in case counts given 2.5 extra hours were included, and slight variation in the results for some fields.”
The province saw a significant drop in completed tests, nearly 20,000 fewer than the previous day. Ontario reported nearly 39,600 completed tests on Tuesday after reporting 57,000 on Monday.
The test positivity rate is 5.4 per cent, up from 4.6 per cent the previous day.
The rolling seven day average now sits at 1,926, up from 1,841 on Monday.
There are 1,810 more resolved cases.
The province is also reporting 20 new COVID-19 related deaths.
Only one of these deaths comes from a resident of a long-term care home. Homes in the province are reporting 20 new cases from residents and and 8 cases from staff.
There is now a total of 144,396 confirmed cases in the province since the onset of the pandemic with 3,992 deaths. Of the confirmed cases 17,031 are active and 123,373 have been resolved.
Among active cases, 921 people are currently in the hospital. The province crosses the 900 patient threshold for the first time in the second wave. Hospitalizations are up 127 since one week ago.
Among the hospitalized, 249 are in the ICU and 156 are on ventilators. The number of ICU patients is up five from a day ago.
Locally in the GTA, there are 711 new cases in Toronto, 586 in Peel, 154 in York Region, 92 in Durham and 65 in Halton Region.
All GTA regions saw an increase in cases except for York Region.
Overall there were 1,608 cases from the GTA. The region is responsible for 70 per cent of the provincial cases compared to 65 per cent on Monday.
Windsor-Essex County continues to be the biggest problem spot outside of the GTA, with the the region seeing 185 new cases on Tuesday.
Winsdor-Essex and York Region entered into lockdown on Monday.
COVID-19 in schools
The province reported 319 new COVID-19 cases in schools on Thursday.
Among the new cases in schools, 270 are related to students, while 48 are linked to staff.
Nearly 19 per cent of schools in the province currently have a reported case of the virus. Twenty schools outside of Windsor-Essex are currently closed as a result of COVID-19.
All schools in Windsor-Essex are currently closed for in-person learning.
You can find which schools are reporting cases on the province’s website, when it is updated daily at 10:30 a.m
