COVID-19 update April 24: Ontario reports another new record-high case count and 50 more deaths

TORONTO, ON. APRIL 24, 2020 –– Today, unfortunately Ontario reported another record-high 640 cases of COVID-19, This is the second straight day the daily numbers have hit a record-high, but it makes sense as the province is able to test a lot more symptomatic people. The province has now reported 13,519 cases and sadly today Ontario reported 50 more deaths, although that is more than 4 fewer than yesterday, raising the death toll to 763 with 6,221 recoveries.

Sadly, province-wide 463 of the 763 deaths have occurred at long-term care centres, which is an increase of 105 deaths, and the total number of cases in the care homes has risen to 3,081. Not all of the cases are elderly, as 1089 of the confirmed cases are members of staff. There were 8 more outbreaks yesterday and now there have been 143 outbreaks in long-term care homes and 41 outbreaks in Ontario hospitals, which is up 6 from yesterday.

With testing greatly ramped up from previous weeks the province conducted 12,295 tests yesterday, and Ontario has completed 207,040 tests in total. Ontario came very close to reaching its second testing goal of 12,500 tests a day by today and their next goal is 16,000 a day by May 6.

In terms of true stats from today’s numbers, which are really from April 23 as of 4 pm, Ontario Public Health officials said today the number of hospitalized patients in Ontario due to the virus has increased by 23 and now stands at 887, while the number of patients in ICU has risen by 10 to 243. Today, there are 193 patients currently on ventilators, which are eight more than yesterday. 1,626 of the total cases are healthcare workers.

Greater Toronto Area and Toronto COVID-19 case numbers

Greater Toronto Area public health units account for 59.1% of cases, of which 1,966 exist in Peel, 413 in Halton, 783 in Durham, and 1,245 in York.

Meanwhile as of 9:00 am today Toronto Public Health says 4,408 cases have been reported in Toronto along with 238 deaths. There have been 83 outbreaks in institutions and 243 cases have recovered, while 300 people are in hospital (7 more than yesterday), and 113 people are in intensive care.

Today, Dr. Eileen de Villa, Toronto’s Medical Officer of Health contiued her plea for Toronto residents to stay the course. “The weekend is upon us and I know many of us want to spend time with friends and loved ones outside. I need to remind you that it continues to be extremely important for us to stay home to reduce the spread of this virus. I encourage you to connect and to stay connected with your loved ones but to do so virtually, or by phone. Your actions will help us to get our city back and save lives,” said Dr. de Villa.

Total COVID-19 cases and deaths in Canada Friday, April 24 at 7 pm – 43,888 cases, 2,302 deaths

Canada has reported a total to 43,888 cases of COVID-19 including 2,302 deaths. With 1,340, Quebec has sustained the most COVID-19 related deaths in Canada while Ontario has now had 763 coronavirus-related deaths. British Columbia now has 98 deaths due to COVID-19. Quebec by far also has the most cases of COVID-19 with 22,616. Ontario is second highest at 13,519 and Alberta is now well ahead of BC with 4,017 cases while BC now has 1,853. Saskatchewan now has 341 reported cases while the rest of the Canadian provinces have well below 300.

Number of COVID-19 cases and deaths around the world Friday April 24, 2020 at 5:30 pm

Worldwide today, there are 2,627,630 cases of COVID-1, which is up 163,356 since yesterday at 8:30 pm as reported by the Johns Hopkins University. Of those cases there are have been 5,137 more deaths bringing the worldwide up to 195,920 deaths.

The United States by far has the most cases of COVID-19 worldwide jumping from 887,787 to 890,524 followed by Spain with 219,764 while Italy has the third most cases with 192,994 and France remains ahead of Germany with 159,495 reported cases of novel coronavirus. Germany now has 154,545 cases followed by the United Kingdom which now has 144,635. Turkey is now at 104,912 while Iran has 88,194 followed by China reporting 83,885 cases, which is a mere 7 more cases since yesterday continuing to raise a flag about the actual data coming out of China. Russia continues to report large case numbers with 68,622 while Brazil is next with 52,995. Canada remains above Belgium with 44,526 cases and Belgium now has 44,293. Netherlands reported more cases than yesterday with 36,727 followed by Switzerland which is also slowing in case count with 28,677 cases. India is now starting to report more cases as they have gone well above 20 thousand with 24,447. The rest of the world has reported fewer than 24,000 cases of COVID-19.

In terms of deaths, the United States reported 52,234 coronavirus-related deaths. New York City alone has reported 16,646 deaths. Italy has had 25,967 deaths followed by Spain with 22,524, France with 22,245 and then the United Kingdom with 19,506 deaths caused by COVID-19.