Ontario announces 135 new cases of COVID-19 bringing provincial total to nearly 1K

There are now nearly 1,000 people in Ontario infected with the 2019 novel coronavirus, according to the province's Ministry of Health, after a jump of more than 130 patients between Thursday and Friday.

As of 10:30 a.m. on Friday morning, Ontario is reporting 967 confirmed positive cases of COVID-19 across the province.

Eight cases are now marked as "resolved" and 18 people have died as a result of contracting the deadly virus.

Another 10,074 Ontarians are listed as "currently under investigation" on the government's dedicated coronavirus web page.

March 27: 135 new #COVID19 cases today.
Total in Ontario is 993, just shy of 1000 cases and below my models prediction.
Expect 1180 total cases tomorrow.
As has been pointed out elsewhere, Ontario is under testing so there are likely more cases.
Growth of my model remains at 18%. https://t.co/dqMlIOZH71 pic.twitter.com/RTTFLB4nmT

— Jamie Mitchell (@realJ_Mitchell) March 27, 2020

Unlike in previous days, the government provides no breakdown of locations, genders, ages or methods of transmission for the newly-confirmed patients.

Instead, it states simply that "information for all cases today is pending."

What we do know is that at least one newly-deceased patient was in his 40s and worked at a grocery store in Oshawa. Identified as Keith Saunders of Bowmanville, Ontario, the man died on Wednesday after spending a week in hospital and is the province's youngest COVID-19 related fatality to date.

Oshawa grocery store worker, 48, Ontario's youngest COVID-19 death https://t.co/QU2ldh1Yxg pic.twitter.com/wiAKPEujTL

— Toronto Sun (@TheTorontoSun) March 27, 2020

The number of confirmed coronavirus cases in Ontario continues to rise despite strict social distancing orders put into place by multiple levels of government.

Public health experts maintain that it will take time to see the effects of these measures in terms of case numbers, and that Ontarians should continue to practice social distancing or self-isolation until otherwise recommended.

As of Friday morning, 4,018 patients across Canada had fallen victim to the global coronavirus pandemic, thirty-nine of them fatally.

The World Health Organization has now recorded 462,684 cases of COVID-19 with 20,834 deaths confirmed globally.