covid 19 ontario

Ontario just reported its highest number of new COVID-19 cases in a week

For the first time since May 24, when government officials blamed Mother's Day for a troubling spike in COVID-19 patients, Ontario's Ministry of Health has confirmed more than 400 new cases of the deadly viral disease overnight.

The province's total number of cases grew by 404 on May 31, according to health officials, reaching 28,263 as of today with a total of 2,276 deaths.

This represents the highest number of new cases we've seen overnight in one week, though today's increase rate of 1.5 per cent is slightly lower than last Monday's, when 404 cases meant an increase of 1.6 per cent.

Ontario is also faring better in terms of both testing and recovery rates: Last week at this time, 76 per cent of all cases were considered to be resolved. Today, the recovery rate sits at 78.4 per cent.

Public health units across the province completed 14,379 tests on Sunday, according to the Ministry of Health's dedicated coronavirus web portal.

While lower than the government's own benchmark of 16,000 tests per day, and far lower than the record 20,640 reported the day previous, it's a lot better than the dismal 5,813 completed on May 18 or 7,400 on May 19.

It is nonetheless concerning for some residents to see test numbers dropping and case numbers rising in tandem once again.

In happier news, only 10 new deaths were recorded in Ontario on Sunday, which is one of the lowest numbers we've seen since the pandemic first hit.

More than half of all deaths in the province (1,445) have taken place among residents in long-term care homes, according Public Health Ontario, though it's important to note that the vast majority of cases have been confirmed among the general public.

Only about 18 per cent of all cases in Ontario (5,097) have been diagnosed in long-term care homes. 

The full impact of Ontario's Stage 1 reopening measures on COVID-19 numbers have yet to be seen, but it doesn't look likely that we'll be heading into Stage 2 sometime soon.

Ontario's Chief Medical Officer of Health, Dr. David Williams, has consistently stated that he'll need to see a steady decline in new case numbers, as well as sufficient enough testing to detect new outbreaks quickly, for two to four weeks before the province moves forward with any more of its plans to reopen the economy.

Lead photo by

Agencia Brasilia


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