COVID-19: Ontario reports highest number of cases in a week, another 33 deaths
TORONTO, ON., May 16, 2020 — Just as Ontario’s case counts seemed to be dropping, even in the wake of increased testing, the province reported a higher COVID-19 case count heading into a Victoria Day weekend where some restrictions have been eased.
Today, the Ontario Ministry of Health reported 391 new cases after reporting 50 fewer on Thursday. This is the province’s highest report of new cases since May 9th and increases Ontario’s total case count to 22,313 as of Friday at 4 pm. Meanwhile, 17,768 tests for the virus were conducted yesterday.
There seems to be little to no consistency with the number of cases being reported as this past week it has fluctuated from a low of 294 to yesterday’s high of 391.
Sadly, Ontario has now reported 1,858 deaths, up 33 from yesterday’s report. 1,308 deaths have occurred in people over the age of 80 with an additional 465 deaths in the 60-79 age category. While 85 people aged 20-59 have also lost their lives due to the COVID-19 virus.
Ontario’s total case count including recoveries is 22,313 while there have also been 17,020 recoveries and the province has now completed 528,609 tests.
The number of COVID-19 cases for the past seven days are 294, 308, 361, 329, 258, 341 and 391 respectively, so you can see that the numbers are all over the place fluctuating between 100 cases on any given day this past week.
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 2,975 of which 1,621 have been staff members. A total of 264 outbreaks, 10 more than Thursday’s number reported in long-term care homes along with more than 1,365 deaths including 5 staff workers.
Hospitals have also reported 345 staff cases of COVID-19 which is 19 more over the past two days. Thankfully, zero deaths were reported among hospital staff over the past two days so the death toll for hospital staff remains at to 52. There now have been 77 outbreaks in Ontario hospitals, which is up three from Thursday’s report.
According to hospital stats provided by the Ontario Ministry of Health from May 15 as of 4 pm, the number of actively hospitalized patients in Ontario due to the coronavirus is 975, which is a drop of 53 from two days ago, while the total number of patients currently in Intensive Care is 180. 135 patients were listed as being on ventilators. Also of note, 3,799 of the total 22,313 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 326 new cases a day while the previous 7 days, the daily average was 355. So the case counts are continuing to drop and the number of tests are at a high rate, meaning the virus is slowing down in Ontario, which has precipitated the province to launch Phase 1 of its reopening starting May 17th with golf courses and marinas, followed by retail stores aside from malls, as well as numerous non-team amateur and professional sport activities.
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, May 13 – 329, May 14 – 258, May 15 – 341, May 16 – 391
Greater Toronto Area and Toronto COVID-19 case numbers
Greater Toronto Area public health units now account for 62.8% of cases while 12.7% of those people are hospitalized. Toronto has reported 8,386 cases, while there are 3,256 in Peel, 557 in Halton (just one new case since yesterday), 1,213 in Durham, and 1,939 in York.
In Toronto, there have been 672 COVID-19 related deaths reported, which is an increase of 24 since Thursday. According to today’s numbers there were 289 new COVID-19 infections reported in Toronto since Thursday bringing the city’s total up to 8,097 cases. To date, 6,189 people have recovered, an increase of 338 since Thursday. There have also been 136 COVID-19 outbreaks within institutions, up ten from the Thursday.
Mayor Tory stated in his remarks o Friday that “until we reduce the spread of COVID-19 in our city it is not the time for large gatherings. As we move to COVID-19 recovery, we need to look at our specific local circumstances as we follow the Provincial recovery framework.”
This includes making sure we continue to reduce the number of new cases of COVID-19
infection; that there is have capacity in our hospitals to manage surges in COVID-19
cases while still providing all the other medical care that people need; that we have enough public health resources and capacity to manage an increase in COVID-19 cases; and that there is enough testing and surveillance capacity in the provincial system to quickly detect new cases and virus spread in our community.”
As Mayor Tory also shared in his remarks, all planned summer camps and summer recreation programs have been cancelled along with all large gathering City events until August 31. But the Toronto has opened all of its 5 City-run golf courses.
“We know how important these camps are to the health of our children and their families, and I know how they are a fun part of summer,” said Tory. “This is why my team is working with the
City’s Parks, Forestry and Recreation division to provide guidance on how they can provide a modified version of summer day camps this year that are safe for our youth – if provincial restrictions are lifted and our local conditions allow.”
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