Ontario is reporting 266 new cases of COVID-19 and another nine deaths.
It is the highest number of new cases confirmed over any 24-hour period over the last week but it only represents a 17 per cent increase on the rolling-five day average of new cases, which now stands at 226.
It also comes as the province continues to conduct more tests than ever before.
On Friday, the province‘s labs turned around 27,456 individual tests. That is down slightly from the record 28,335 tests conducted on Thursday but still represents a massive increase on the volume of tests that were being processed on a daily basis last month, which reached their nadir on the Victoria Day holiday when fewer than 6,000 were processed.
“As we continue to test so expansively, there may be upticks in cases some days. What matters most are trends, which continue to show Ontario on a downward trajectory,” Health Minister Christine Elliott said in a message posted to Twitter on Saturday morning.
The latest data shows that more than two-thirds of all new cases (178) over the last 24 hours were reported in Toronto, Peel or York regions, marking the continuation of a recent trend that has seen the virus mostly concentrated in the GTA.
Meanwhile, 28 of Ontario’s 34 public health units reported five or fewer new cases with 14 of them not reporting any cases at all.
There were also another 351 recoveries added to the province’s database as the number of active cases province-wide declined to 2,947.
Hospitalizations also continue to decline and have now fallen under the 500 mark for the first time in months.
On Friday, just 489 COVID-19 patients were receiving treatment in Ontario hospitals. That is compared to 527 one-day prior at 673 at the point last week.
Of the people still hospitalized 110 of them are in Intensive Care Units, which is the lowest that number has been since April 29.
The rolling-five day average of new cases had reached 374 at this point last week after the province saw an increase in new infections.
Other highlights from the data:
- There have been 324 outbreaks in Ontario’s 626 long-term care homes but only 75 of them are still considered active
- There have been 1,610 deaths involving residents of long-term care homes who have contracted COVID-19, accounting for more than 64 per cent of all fatalities
- There have been 86 outbreaks reported at hospitals but only one remains active
- Since the outset of the pandemic 3,907 people have been hospitalized with COVID-19, accounting for 12.2 per cent of all cases
- There have been 2,507 deaths reported. People over the age of 80 accounts for 1,740 of those deaths while people between the ages of 20 and 39 account for just 11 of the deaths.
