Ontario reports big increase in COVID-19 cases but much fewer deaths
TORONTO, ON., May 19, 2020 — Today, Ontario reported 427 new cases of COVID-19 after a weekend that saw much lower numbers, with 304 on Sunday and 340 on Saturday.
The province completed only 5,813 tests on Monday which is an enormous drop from the previous week, although they also only completed 10,000 tests on Sunday. Before that, Ontario tested over 17,000 people in Saturday’s report. But Ontario’s Chief Medical Officer of Health Dr. David Williams said, the low test numbers could be because fewer people came in to get tested because it was a public holiday yesterday.
“The large inflow of people coming to get tested did not occur. It may be a weekend effect,” said Dr. Williams.
Sadly, Ontario has now reported 1,919 deaths, up 22 from yesterday’s report. 1,338 deaths have occurred in people over the age of 80 with an additional 491 deaths in the 60-79 age category. While 89 people aged 20-59 have also lost their lives due to the COVID-19 virus.
Ontario’s total case count including recoveries is 23,384 while there have also been 17,898 recoveries and the province has now completed 559,794 tests.
The number of COVID-19 cases for the past seven days are 329, 258, 341, 391, 304, 340 and 427 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 2,538 along with 1,615 staff members. A total of 280 outbreaks, 16 more than Saturday’s number reported in long-term care homes along with more than 1,408 deaths including 5 staff workers.
Hospitals have also reported 350 staff cases of COVID-19 which is 5 more over the past two days. Thankfully, zero deaths were reported among hospital staff over the past four days so the death toll for hospital staff remains at to 52. There now are 52 outbreaks in Ontario hospitals, which is down 25 since Saturday’s report.
According to hospital stats provided by the Ontario Ministry of Health from May 18 as of 4 pm, the number of actively hospitalized patients in Ontario due to the coronavirus is 987, which is up 12 from two days ago, while the total number of patients currently in Intensive Care is 167. 123 patients were listed as being on ventilators. Also of note, 4,043 of the total 22,384 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 341 new cases a day, up 25 from the daily average on Saturday, while the previous 7 days, the daily average was 371, which is up 16 from two days ago. So the case counts are beginning to climb a bit it seems and the number of tests over the past two days have been lower than the previous few weeks. So while up to two days ago tests counts were higher than ever and numbers were lower, now it seems that is no longer the case.
Dr. David Williams says he is hoping it the higher case count is just a blip and that the slowing trend returns. Meanwhile, the province is well into its first phase of reopening, as today retails stores aside from those without exterior entrances have opened up with physical distancing and safety precautions in place while over the weekend starting May 17th golf courses and marinas were given the green light, as dog parks and 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, May 17 – 304, May 18 – 340, May 19 – 427
Greater Toronto Area and Toronto COVID-19 case numbers
Greater Toronto Area public health units now account for 63.1% of cases while 12.9% of those people are hospitalized. Toronto has reported 8,866 cases, while there are 3,477 in Peel, 585 in Halton, 1,272 in Durham, and 2,018 in York.
In Toronto, there have been 690 COVID-19 related deaths reported, which is an increase of 18 since Saturday. According to today’s numbers there were 799 new COVID-19 infections reported in Toronto since Saturday bringing the city’s total up to 8,866 cases. To date, 6,616 people have recovered, an increase of 427 since Saturday. There have also been 137 COVID-19 outbreaks within institutions, thankfully up just one since Saturday.
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