COVID-19 Daily Update: Ontario reports record-high number of deaths for second straight day

TORONTO, ON., APRIL 15, 2020 – Today, Ontario reported 51 deaths due to COVID-19, which is a record-high for the second straight day. The total number of deaths now stands at 385 and with 494 new cases the province has now reported 8,447 cases of COVID-19 as of 4 pm yesterday.

Ontario’s Chief Medical Officer of Health, Dr. David Williams said that more than half of the new cases are connected with residents and workers at long-term care, which means a little over 200 new cases were diagnosed within the remainder of the population. According to Dr. Williams this is a good sign.

Dr. Williams went on to say that because “we’re well below some of the numbers we projected,” Ontario has “been successful in bending the curve.” Meaning the province is headed in the right direction towards flattening the curve thanks to good social and physical distancing practices.

On an even more positive note, the province tested 6,010 people over the past 24 hours, which is getting closer to the 8,000 per day that they expect to be testing.

“They gave us a guideline of 8,000 and we are going to see those numbers tomorrow, at least I hope we see those numbers tomorrow,” Premier Doug Ford said Wednesday.

Provincewide 145 of the 385 deaths have occurred at long-term care centres and the total number of cases has risen in the care homes has risen by 139 to 1,291. Not all of the cases are elderly, as 453 of the confirmed cases are members of staff.

In terms of true stats from today’s numbers, which are really yesterday’s numbers as of 4 pm, Ontario Public Health officials said today there are 4,429 cases under investigation and that is more than twice as many as yesterday, most likely because more testing is happening now. The number of hospitalized patients in Ontario due to the virus has only increased by nine from 769 to 795, while the number of patients in ICU yesterday dropped from 255 to 254. Today, there are 188 patients currently on ventilators, which is down 11 from yesterday.

The Ontario report includes the most current information available from the integrated Public Health Information System (iPHIS) as of 4 p.m. April 14, 2020.

Within Toronto, as of 12:30 pm today there are now 2,670 confirmed cases of COVID-19 including 29 more deaths bringing the today number of Toronto deaths reported by Toronto Public Health up to 121. There are 243 people hospitalized in Toronto, and there are 94 people in intensive care units.

Dr. Eileen de Villa, Toronto’s Medical Officer of Health said that each and every day they learn more about the virus and its impact. She explained that “Current evidence from jurisdictions around the world indicates that the vast majority of COVID-19 cases are mild to moderate.” She went on to say that “Approximately 20% of people infected with COVID-19 are considered severe enough to be hospitalized. Critical cases may experience respiratory failure, septic shock or multiple organ dysfunction and require care in an intensive care unit.”

To ensure that our essential workers remain healthy and care for our city, Dr. de Villa said “we must continue to practise physical distancing. So please continue to stay home, stay safe and take care of each other.”

Total COVID-19 cases and deaths in Canada Wednesday, April 15

Today, Canada’s Chief Public Health Officer Dr. Theresa Tam said there are positive aspects to the nation’s recent case numbers, but nothing can be concretely established yet.

Canada saw a big jump in reported cases from yesterday with 2,218 more cases of COVID-19 bringing its total to 28,381 including 187 more deaths, bringing the national total of deaths up to 1,010. With 487, Quebec has sustained the most COVID-19 related deaths in Canada while Ontario has now had 385 coronavirus-related deaths. British Columbia had six recorded deaths yesterday and now has 75 reported deaths due to COVID-19. Quebec by far is surging with the most cases of COVID-19 with 14,860. Ontario is second highest at 8,447 and Alberta is ahead of BC with 1,996 cases while BC now has 1,661. Saskatchewan now has 304 reported cases while the rest of the Canadian provinces have well below 300.

SOURCE Canada.ca

Number of COVID-19 cases and deaths around the world Wednesday, April 15, 2020 4:30 pm

Worldwide today, there was a smaller jump than yesterday with 84,392 more cases today bringing the total up to 2,063,161 cases of COVID-19 as of 10:30 pm April 15, 2020 as reported by the Johns Hopkins University. Of those cases there have been 11,815 more deaths bringing the death toll to to over one hundred thirty-five thousand worldwide with 136,938 deaths.

The United States by far has the most cases of COVID-19 worldwide jumping from 598,670 to 641,919, followed by Spain with 180,659 while Italy has the third most cases with 165,155 and Germany has jumped above France with 134,753 reported cases of novel coronavirus. France now has 134,582 cases. The UK jumped by 4,644 to 99,489. China only reported 86 more cases so they now have 83,392 while Iran now has 76,389. Turkey jumped over 4,000 again to 69,392 cases and Belgium is at 33,573. Meanwhile, Brazil has overtaken a number of countries including Canada with 28,812. Netherlands is next with 28,316 and Canada as reported now has 28,253 cases. Switzerland has 26,336 cases. followed by Russia with 24,490. Portugal has 18,091 cases. and the rest of the world has reported fewer than 15,000 cases of COVID-19.

In terms of deaths, the United States reported 4,136 additional deaths yesterday bringing its total to 28,399 coronavirus-related deaths. New York City alone has reported 10,899 deaths. Italy has had 21,645 deaths followed by Spain with 18,812, France with 17,167 and then the United Kingdom with 12,868 deaths caused by COVID-19.