Ontario is reporting 1,575 new COVID-19 cases on Thursday, recording a new single-day record high for a third day in a row.
Eighteen more people have died from the virus across Ontario, marking the highest amount of fatalities recorded in a day during the second wave of the virus, which began in September.
Twelve of those deaths were among long-term care home residents, up from seven deaths in this setting a day ago. Ontario’s centrally-confirmed death toll from the virus now stands at 3,293.
There are currently 93 long-term care homes with a COVID-19 outbreak in Ontario.
Most of Thursday’s new infections continue to be in the Greater Toronto Area.
“Locally, there are 472 new cases in Toronto, 448 in Peel, 155 in York Region and 91 in Ottawa,” Health Minister Christine Elliott tweeted Thursday morning.
Elsewhere in the GTA, Durham Region recorded 61 new infections, relatively unchanged from a day ago and Halton logged 54 cases, up from 30 on Wednesday.
Peel’s latest numbers represent a drop from the record-high 468 new infections recorded on Wednesday.
Meanwhile, Ottawa’s latest numbers mark a notable increase from the 28 cases logged a day ago.
On Wednesday, the province reported 1,426 new COVID-19 cases and 1,388 on Tuesday.
The seven-day rolling average of new cases in the province now stands at 1,299, up from 981 cases this time last week.
Provincial labs processed more than 39,500 tests in the last 24 hours, up from more than 36,700 tests conducted a day ago. Nearly 42,000 specimens remain under investigation.
According to provincial health officials, the overall positivity rate for Ontario is now 4.3 per cent.
Meanwhile, officials said Peel Region’s positivity rate for the first week of November was nearly 10 per cent.
The province says 917 more people have recovered from the virus on Thursday, bringing the total number of active cases in the province to 11,271.
To date, there have been 89,784 lab-confirmed cases of the virus in Ontario and 75,220 recoveries since January 25.
The number of people hospitalized for the virus continues to climb in the province.
On Thursday, 431 people were receiving treatment for COVID-19 in Ontario hospitals, up from 424 a day ago. There are currently 98 patients in intensive care units and 62 of those patients are breathing with the help of a ventilator.
Today’s numbers were released ahead of new modelling data that is set to be announced by the government Thursday afternoon.
At the end of October, Ontario’s official COVID-19 modelling table released projections that showed three different scenarios for what could happen over the next 30 days as the province approaches the peak of the second wave.
It concluded that the most likely scenario was the province would see about 800 cases per day and the number of new infections would stay at that level throughout November.
However, new infections have surged in the province since those projections were released and Ontario’s latest numbers have surpassed the government’s worst-case scenario of 1,000 to 1,200 cases per day.
Dr. David Williams, Ontario's chief medical officer of health, will be joined by Dr. Adalsteinn Brown and Dr. Dirk Huyer, Ontario's chief coroner, to present the new modelling data at a news conference at 3 p.m.
