COVID-19: Ontario sees 42 new cases

On Sunday Ontario reported 42 new cases of COVID-19 increasing the province’s total number of cases to 145. It marks the biggest single day spike thus far during the outbreak. Saturday saw 24 new cases and on Friday 19 new cases were reported, so the jump in numbers is widening daily.

One of those cases is a Canadian Border Services officer who works at Pearson screening passengers for COVID-19 risk. He is now being isolated at home.

Most of the new cases from Sunday are in southern Ontario. There are 14 in Toronto, five in Peel Region, three in York Region, three in Hamilton, two in Durham, two in Waterloo, and one in Niagara.

Of the 8465 cases tested in Ontario, 7004 have been confirmed as negative 1316 are still under investigation, 140 are confirmed as positive and 5 have recovered.

Nationally there are 341 confirmed cases as of Sunday March 15 which means Ontario accounts for 43% of Canada’s COVID-19 cases.

All of the new cases are listed as being in self-isolation, with the exception of one patient admitted to hospital in Simcoe-Muskoka.

According to Public Health Canada 29% of the cases are 60 years and over and 79% of the cases are travellers with an additional 8% being close contacts to the travellers. It is an event split between male and female cases. 12 % of the 316 cases have been hospitalised and 1 person has died.

Symptoms of COVID-19 an include fever, cough and difficulty breathing – very similar to a cold or flu. Some people can develop a more severe illness. People most at risk include older adults and people with severe chronic medical conditions like heart, lung or kidney disease.