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COVID-19: Ontario reports 361 new cases, 56 deaths, extends State of Emergency to June 2

TORONTO, ON., May 12, 2020 — For the second straight day the province has seen a slight rise in COVID-19 daily new cases as well as an increase in deaths. But Ontario’s top doctor says the pattern is similar to last week’s with low case counts going up and down.

“It jumped up to the upper 300s and lower 400s (last week after low weekend numbers) so if this is our maximum it might be good news but we will have to wait to see what happens as the week goes by,” Ontario’s Chief Medical Officer of Health Dr. David Williams.

This comes as the province announced an extension to the State of Emergency which passed during a special sitting of the Ontario Legislature today. The Declaration of Emergency has been extended until June 2. The declaration will allow Ontario to continue to enforce current emergency orders, such as restricting retirement and long-term care home employees from working in more than one facility and prohibiting events and gatherings of more than five people.

“We are making steady progress to flatten the curve and get more people back to work safely, including our legislators, but we still have far to go in defeating COVID-19,” said Premier Ford. “Extending the declaration of emergency will allow us to continue to take action to protect Ontarians, while carefully and cautiously reopening more parts of our economy.”

Although the province recorded record low case numbers on the weekend, today Ontario reported 361 new cases while yesterday there were 308 new cases of COVID-19. The province conducted 11,957 tests yesterday which is about 2,000 fewer than the previous day.

Sadly, the Ontario health units also reported 56 more deaths, 18 more deaths than yesterday’s report, increasing the province’s death toll to 1,725. 1,219 of the 1,669 deaths have occurred in people over the age of 80 with an additional 427 deaths in the 60-79 age category. While 79 people aged 20-59 have also lost their lives due to the COVID-19 virus.

Ontario’s total case count including recoveries is 20,907 while the total number of Ontarians who have lost their lives to COVID-19 is now 1,725. There have been 15,391 recoveries and the province has now completed 459,921 tests.

The number of COVID-19 cases for the past seven days are 412, 399, 477, 346, 294, 308 and 361 respectively, whereas last week the province was reporting between 400 and 510 cases.

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Long-term care homes have been hardest hit

Meanwhile, the long-term care situation continues to be grim. The total number of active cases in the long-term care homes is 2,972 along with 1,558 staff members. A total of 249 outbreaks, the same number as yesterday have been reported in long-term care homes along with more than 1,239 deaths.

Hospitals have also reported 308 staff cases of COVID-19 which is four more since yesterday. Sadly, two more deaths were reported among hospital staff yesterday so the death toll for hospital staff has increased to 52. There now have been 73 outbreaks in Ontario hospitals, which is the same number as yesterday’s report.

According to hospital stats provided by the Ontario Ministry of Health from May 11 as of 4 pm, the number of actively hospitalized patients in Ontario due to the coronavirus is 1,025, which are 2 fewer than yesterday, while the total number of patients currently in Intensive Care is 192. Also of note, 3,485 of the total 20,907 cases are healthcare workers.

Ontario daily COVID-19 case counts past 20 days

If you take a look at the numbers over the past 14 days you will see that the average continues to drop as over the past seven days have seen an average of 371 new cases a day while the previous 7 days, the daily average was 418. So the case counts are dropping at this point with increased testing, meaning that is a doubly good sign that the spread of the virus is slowing.

Ontario COVID -19 case counts since April 20, 2020

April 20 – 606, April 21 – 551, April 22 – 510, April 23 – 634, April 24 – 640, April 25 – 476, April 26 – 437, April 27 – 424, April 28 – 525, April 29 – 347, April 30 – 459, May 1 – 421, May 2 – 511, May 3 – 434, May 4 – 370, May 5 – 387, May 6 – 412, May 7 – 399, May 8 – 477, May 9 – 346, May 10 – 294, May 11 – 308, May 12 – 361

Greater Toronto Area and Toronto COVID-19 case numbers

Greater Toronto Area public health units now account for 62.1% of cases while 12.7% of those people are hospitalized. Toronto has reported 7,775 cases, while there are 2,993 in Peel, 517 in Halton, 1,161 in Durham, and 1,874 in York.

In Toronto there have been 622 COVID-19 related deaths reported, which is a dramatic increase of 44 since yesterday. Today there are 218 new COVID-19 infections in Toronto bringing the city’s total up to 7,775 cases. To date, 5,449 people have recovered, an increase of 109 since yesterday. There have also been 125 COVID-19 outbreaks within institutions, four up from yesterday.

Today Toronto’s Medical Officer of Health, Dr. Eileen de Villa said, “I think it’s important to remind everyone that easing our public health measures will continue to be a gradual process until we have a vaccine, or effective treatments for this virus. Until that time, physical distancing will be part of our everyday lives – in all settings.”