COVID-19: Ontario reports lowest case count in a month and record-high test number
TORONTO, ON., May 9, 2020 — Today, Ontario public health officials reported 346 new COVID-19 infections which is the lowest number the province has reported since 306 on April 6. The fact that Ontario also completed a record-high 19,227 tests — over 4,500 more than yesterday — is very encouraging in terms of slowing the spread of the virus. Yesterday’s numbers had the province concerned as there were 477 cases and fewer tests completed, but today’s figures are most encouraging.
“These certainly are very encouraging signs,” said Health Minister Christine Elliott today. “We need to see these numbers keep coming down as we gradually open more and more parts of our economy.”
Sadly, the province also reported 59 more deaths, 4 fewer than yesterday’s death toll, but still an unnervingly high number. Ontario’s total case count including recoveries has now risen to 19,944 while the total number of Ontarians who have lost their lives to COVID-19 is now 1,599. There have been 13,569 recoveries with 421 reported yesterday.
This week’s seven-day numbers are 511, 434, 370, 387, 412, 399, 477 and 346 respectively, whereas last week the province was reporting between 500 and 640 cases.
Ontario conducted a record-high 19,227 tests, over 4,500 more tests than previous day
Today, the province completed 19,227 tests, which is a huge jump from the 14,631 tested yesterday and over 3,000 more than previous record test numbers. With increased testing capacity and continuing improvement to physical distancing measures, the cases of COVID-19 are slowly coming down, which has prompted the province to ease more restrictions today allowing Ontario Parks to open with restrictions for hikers, bikers and birdwatchers starting Monday. This comes after the province declared that garden centres and nurseries could reopen Friday with certain safety guidelines restrictions, followed by hardware stores on Saturday and retail stores that can operate curbside on Monday.
On Friday, the province has also granted permission for Ontario professional sports teams to resume training but under strict guidelines handed down by both the province as well as each respective pro league including the NHL, NBA, MLB, MLS and CFL. Premier Ford affirmed that each league is very stringent with strict rules from their own medical advisors. The Raptors have already been granted permission to commence small group training at OVO Athletic Centre.
Long-term care homes report 48 more deaths
The total number of active cases in the care and retirement homes is 2,898 along with 1,515 staff members. A total of 237 outbreaks, three more than yesterday have been reported in long-term care homes along with more than 1,500 deaths.
Hospitals have also reported 293 staff cases of COVID-19 which is two more since yesterday. Thankfully, there were zero deaths among hospital staff yesterday so the death toll for hospital staff remains at 47. There now have been 70 outbreaks in Ontario hospitals, which is the same as yesterday.
Some encouraging news according to hospital stats provided by the Ontario Ministry of Health from May 8 as of 4 pm, the number of cumulative hospitalized patients in Ontario due to the coronavirus is 2,225, which is an increase of 57 from yesterday. Meanwhile, the total number of patients who have required Intensive Care is 524, which is nine more that the previous day. Also of note, 3,230 of the total 19,598 cases are healthcare workers.
Ontario daily COVID-19 case counts past 17 days
If you take a look at the numbers over the past 14 days you will see that this past week saw an average of 403 new cases a day while the previous 7 days, the daily average was 447. So although, it doesn’t seem now like the number of cases has reduced that much, it is important to keep in mind that the number of tests being conducted has greatly risen.
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
Greater Toronto Area and Toronto COVID-19 case numbers
Greater Toronto Area public health units now account for 61.5% of cases while 12.5% of those people are hospitalized. Toronto has reported 7,251 cases, while there are 2,820 in Peel, 508 in Halton, 1,134 in Durham, and 1,810 in York.
In Toronto there have been 567 COVID-19 related deaths reported and 5,024 recoveries. There have also been 120 COVID-19 outbreaks within institutions.
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