Ontario reports overall COVID-19 numbers slowing but more cases and deaths than the past two days

All but 64 of Ontario’s 1,300 virus-related deaths are in patients 60 or older

TORONTO, ON., May 5, 2020 — Today, Ontario public health officials reported just 370 new COVID-19 infections down from 434 yesterday, but sadly the province also reported 84 deaths which is close to a its record- high of 87. Ontario’s total case count including recoveries has now risen to 17,923 while the total number of Ontarians who have lost their lives to COVID-19 is now 1,300. There have been 12,505 recoveries.

This week’s seven-day numbers are 424, 525, 347, 421, 511, 434, 370 respectively, whereas just over a week ago the province recorded a staggering 640 new cases when they began ramping up the testing.

Province completed 14,555 tests yesterday

Although the province completed 14,555 tests yesterday it was down a bit from the 16,305 tests conducted Saturday, and 16,500 on Friday but Premier Doug Ford said the province has gone from one of the worst testing provinces to the nation leading testing province. To date, Ontario has conducted 342,060 COVID-19 tests.

Ontario’s Chief Medical Officer of Health Dr. David Williams said the encouraging thing is “the curve is gradually coming down with more and more testing and less and less positive daily test results.”

While Ontario’s Premier Ford offered a some encouragement saying, “If we keep going the way we’re going, we’ll be able to get out of this a lot sooner than we thought we would take a couple of months ago,” Ontario Premier Doug Ford said of Saturday’s numbers.

Long-term care homes report 37 more deaths

Sadly 626 of the province’s 1,300 deaths have occurred at long-term care centres, 36 more yesterday. Also 5 staff members have lost their lives due to the virus. The total number of active cases in the care homes is 2,564 along with 1,264 staff members. 212 outbreaks have been reported in long-term care homes.

Hospitals have also reported 251 staff cases of COVID-19 as well as 40 deaths. There now have been 64 outbreaks in Ontario hospitals, which is up 7 from Saturday.

According to more up-to-date hospital stats now being provided by the Ontario Ministry of Health at 10:30 am each day, the number of hospitalized patients in Ontario due to the virus has risen by 59 more people over the past two days bringing the total down to 984. Meanwhile, the number of patients in ICU has risen by 59 since yesterday patients in ICUs. Today, there are also 175 patients currently on ventilators, which has risen by 21 since Saturday. Also of note, 2,761 of the total 17,923 cases are healthcare workers.

Ontario daily COVID-19 case counts past 12 days

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

Greater Toronto Area and Toronto COVID-19 case numbers

Greater Toronto Area public health units now account for 60.1% of cases, and 1.1% are hospitalized. of which 5,641 exist in Toronto, 2,553 in Peel, 477 in Halton, 1,044 in Durham, and 1,838 in York.

Meanwhile as of 5:00 pm yesterday, Toronto Public Health says there are 6,278 people infected with COVID-19 in Toronto. This includes 5,641 confirmed cases and
637 probable ones. There were 387 people in hospital and 105 in intensive
care units. In total, we have lost 449 Torontonians to this virus.

Toronto’s Medical Officer of Health, Dr. Eileen de Villa said the data is showing positive progress within the city. She said “Prior to implementing strict public health measures in mid-March, each case of COVID-19 went on to infect an average of another 3.5 people. This contributed to the growth of the outbreak and the climb in our outbreak ‘curve.'” She said in the early stages in mid-March the number of new cases in Toronto was doubling every 4 days but that now, the number of cases are doubling every 7 days while the rate of infection has decreased from 3.5 to 1, meaning when a person becomes infected with the virus they are only transferring it to one other person.

Toronto’s top doctor also warned however that “while we believe our local curve is flattening, we are not yet seeing a steady decrease in the number of new cases or new hospitalizations each day.
This means we have likely not completely passed the infection peak. As is the case with any outbreak, we will only know when we have reached this point after it has occurred and our local cases begin to decrease.