Ontario sees 0 new COVID-19 deaths for the first time in over three months

For the first time since Ontario started reporting significant COVID-19 numbers back in late March, public health units provincewide have documentd zero new deaths from the infectious disease over the past 24 hours.

This comes as case numbers in the province are trending downward, with 154 new patients today, the seventh day in a row with fewer than 200 additional infections.

Another 160 people have also recovered, and more than 87 per cent of Ontario's 35,948 total novel coronavirus cases are now considered to be resolved.

This is the first day since March 29 that Ontario reported 0 COVID-19 deaths in its IPHIS data.

Active cases at 1833, lowest we've seen since April 1.

— John Michael McGrath (@jm_mcgrath) July 6, 2020

New patients have been split pretty evenly between Toronto, Peel and Windsor-Essex Public Health Units lately — the three regions that were held back from Stage 2 of reopening the latest.

The July 5 numbers show 59 new cases in Toronto, 43 in Peel and only 4 in Windsor-Essex, with the remainder split between other areas (including York, which had 12).

As testing in the province continues to take place at a fairly high rate — with 17,303 tests completed in the last 24 hours — the federal government has started conducting mass serological testing (for antibodies in blood vs. for active infection via the usual naseopharyngeal swab test) to provide a more accurate estimate of what percentage of Canada's population has actually contracted the virus at some point.

New: Ontario is reporting 0 new #COVID19 deaths today, the first time in months
• 154 new cases
• 5 day rolling avg: 148 (last wk: 179)
• total cases: 35.9K
• 87.4% resolved (up 160)
• 2,689 total deaths
• daily tests: 17.3K
• backlog: 8.9K
• 118 hospitalized (down 21)

— Tina Yazdani (@TinaYazdani) July 6, 2020

Meanwhile, some Toronto hospitals are starting to report having no COVID-19 patients in their intensive care units for the first time in more than three months as things in the city continue to gradually reopen under a new form of normal that includes things like mandatory face masks in indoor public spaces.