Ontario reports 2,453 new COVID-19 cases and 16 more deaths; hospitalizations continue to rise

Ontario reported more than 2,000 new COVID-19 cases for a third day in a row, as hospitalizations hit a high not seen since early February.

Provincial health officials logged 2,453 new COVID-19 infections on Saturday and 16 additional deaths.

Today marks the highest single-day case count since Jan.22 when 2,662 were reported.

Ontario logged 2,169 cases on Friday, 2,380 on Thursday and 1,571 on Wednesday. However, it should be noted that on Thursday health officials said the count was over reported by approximately 280 cases due to a data catch-up process related to the provincial tracking system.

The seven-day rolling average now stands at 1,944, a notable increase from 1,532 seven days ago.

After four straight days of zero fatalities in long-term care homes across the province, officials said one resident died in the past 24 hours.

The province’s virus-related death toll now stands at 7,308.

According to the Ministry of Health’s latest epidemiological summary, another 1,481 people recovered from the novel coronavirus yesterday, resulting in 17,519 active cases across the province.

The province also logged 35 more lab-confirmed cases of variants of concern today, incluring 29 of the B.1.1.7 variant and three of both the B.1.351 and P.1 variants.

Another 931 cases have screened positive for a variant of concern but are undergoing whole genome sequencing to confirm their lineage, resulting in a total of 17,611 cases awaiting testing and confirmation in Ontario.

Most of the latest COVID-19 cases continue to be within the Greater Toronto Area.

Toronto logged 814 new COVID-19 cases, up from 682 a day ago, while 411 cases were reported in Peel Region, 263 in York, 73 in Halton and 139 in Durham.

All regions in the GTA saw a day-over-day increase in new cases.

Meanwhile, Hamilton recorded 156 new cases, up from 122 on Friday.

Yesterday, the Ontario government announced that Hamilton will be moving from the red-control level of the province’s COVID-19 response framework to the grey-lockdown level on Monday, amid a rise in transmission.

Out of Ontario’s 34 public health units, 12 reported 30 or more new infections.

Ontario labs processed more than 61,000 tests yesterday, up from 53,436 the previous day.

There are more than 33,000 tests under investigation.

The province’s positivity rate jumped to 4.5 per cent today, compared to 3.8 per cent a day ago, according to the Ministry of Health.

COVID-19 hospitalizations saw a notable day-over-day rise.

The Ministry of Health said there are 985 people in hospitals across the province due to COVID-19 infection, up from 913 on Friday.

Today’s hospitalization count is the highest marked since Feb. 6 when 1,021 patients were hospitalized.

Of those currently hospitalized, 365 are intensive care units and 192 are breathing with the help of ventilators.

To date, there have been nearly 340,700 lab-confirmed cases of COVID-19 and 315,865 recoveries since the pandemic started over a year ago.

The latest numbers come as amendments were announced by the Ford government on Friday for the grey-lockdown zone.

As of Monday, personal training and fitness classes can resume outdoors with up to 10 people and on Apr. 12 personal care services, including hair and nail salons, can reopen.

Michael Garron Hospital's Medical Director of Critical Care Dr. Michael Warner spoke to CP24 and said the government's messaging is inconsistent, as it is loosening restrictions while cases are climbing.

"The overall trajectory is upwards and as case counts continue to rise we know that means that ICU admissions down the road are likely to rise as well. So we're really in a precarious situation," he said.

"...The messaging is inconsistent, that while we're opening things up we're also supposed to be taking this really seriously. I think to the average member of the public it's a bit of a confusing message," he added.

More than 308,301 people across the province have been fully vaccinated against the disease since mid-December.

As of Friday evening, over 1.9 million doses of the vaccine have been administered to people in Ontario, with more than 77,700 shots given 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.