Ontario reports 2,380 new COVID-19 infections and 17 more deaths; cases are over reported due to data catch-up

Ontario reported more than 2,300 new COVID-19 cases on Thursday but the Ministry of Health says today’s case count is over reported due to data catch-up.

Provincial health officials logged 2,380 new infections on Thursday, compared to 1,571 on Wednesday.

However, officials say the latest numbers include approximately 280 previous cases due to a “technical issue affecting the flow of laboratory reports into the provincial case and contact management system.”

The last time the province reported over 2,000 cases was on Jan. 30 when 2,093 cases were logged.

Provincial health officials reported 1,547 new infections on Tuesday, 1,699 on Monday and 1,791 on Sunday.

The seven-day average is now 1,794, compared to 1,427 a week ago.

Ontario is also reporting 17 more deaths, raising the province’s virus-related death toll to 7,280.

For the third day in a row, the province is reporting zero new deaths among long-term care home residents.

Associate Chief Medical Officer of Health Dr. Barbara Yaffe urged people not to celebrate Easter or Passover with people outside their household and continue to adhere to public health guidelines.

“I think we can do something to blunt the wave if we just keep at the measures we’re doing.”

Another 1,329 people have recovered from the novel coronavirus, resulting in 16,081 active cases of the virus across the province.

Provincial health officials are also reporting 77 more lab-confirmed cases of highly contagious variants of concern, including 69 of the B.1.1.7 variant, 1 of the B.1.351 variant and 7 P.1 variants.

The Ontario COVID-19 Science Table said an average of 50.5 per cent of all positive cases in the last seven days screened positive for a variant of concern.

Meanwhile, another 854 cases that screened positive for a variant of concern are undergoing whole genome sequencing to confirm their lineage, bringing the total number of cases awaiting sequencing to 15,657.

Public Health Ontario’s Chief Microbiologist Dr. Vanessa Allen said the labs have devised a new method that will mean they can verify which variant of concern each case belongs to without relying on costly and labourious whole genomic sequencing.

They have developed a new PCR screening test which can identify the specific spike protein mutation found in both the B.1.351 and P.1 variants, known as E484K, which “enables much more rapid Identification of these variants,” she said.

“There may now be an increase in the counts of p.1 and b.1.351., but our goal is to identify them sooner rather than later,” she said.

Ontario labs processed more than 60,000 tests in the past 24 hours, up from 51,962 the previous day.

Over 36,900 tests are still under investigation.

The province’s positivity rate is now 3.8 per cent, unchanged from a day ago.

Within the Greater Toronto Area, provincial health officials logged 1,016 new COVID-19 cases in Toronto, 294 in Peel Region, 244 in York, 90 in Durham and 53 in Halton.

Toronto reported 459 new cases a day ago. The last time Toronto reported more than 1,000 new infections was on Jan. 17 when 1,035 cases were recorded.

Of Ontario’s 34 public health units, 13 reported 30 or more new cases on Thursday.

Yaffe said people need to respect all COVID-19 safety guidelines “regardless of what level of the framework your region is in.

According to the Ministry of Health, there are currently 894 people hospitalized for the virus across the province, up by one from Wednesday.

Of those hospitalized, 332 are in intensive care units and 212 are breathing with the help of ventilators.

However, UHN critical care physician Dr. Kali Barrett tweeted that there are 380 people in ICUs across the province, with 227 on ventilators, according to the latest data from Critical Care Services Ontario.

To date, there have been more than 336,000 lab-confirmed COVID-19 cases and 312,709 recoveries in Ontario since the pandemic began over a year ago.

Nearly 304,400 people have been fully vaccinated in Ontario since mid-December.

As of Wednesday evening, over 1.7 million doses were administered across the province, with 79,446 doses administered yesterday alone.

The numbers used in this story are found in the Ontario Ministry of Health's COVID-19 Daily Epidemiologic Summary. The number of cases for any city or region may differ slightly from what is reported by the province, because local units report figures at different times.