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TORONTO – Ontario health officials are reporting more than 1,800 new cases of COVID-19 after the province processed a record number of tests in the past 24 hours.
The province confirmed 1,855 new cases of the novel coronavirus on Friday. It is the highest number of cases ever recorded in a single day in Ontario. The previous record was Saturday, when officials registered 1,588 cases.
Officials said the province has completed 58,137 tests in the past 24 hours, the highest number of tests processed since the pandemic began and the first time the province has exceeded the 50,000 capacity limit. The previous record number was October 8, when the province processed 48,488 tests in a 24-hour period.
The health ministry said the province’s positivity rate on Friday is now about 3.7% when duplicate tests and errors are included.
Health officials also reported 20 new deaths on Friday. The elderly continue to be the age group most affected by the pandemic. According to the province’s epidemiological report, 13 of the 20 deaths were people living in long-term care homes.
Since the pandemic began in January, of the 3,595 people who died in Ontario from the disease, 2,494 were over 80 years old.
Provincial health officials estimated 1,451 more cases had been resolved by Friday, bringing the total number of patients cured in Ontario to 94,366.
The total number of laboratory-confirmed cases of COVID-19 in Ontario now stands at 111,216, including deaths and recoveries.
The province released updated COVID-19 projections Thursday which showed that worst-case scenario, Ontario could see more than 9,000 new cases of the disease per day by the end of the year.
There are 541 people currently in Ontario hospitals due to COVID-19, with at least 151 of those patients in an intensive care unit and 101 of them breathing with the assistance of a ventilator.
The province previously said that once the number of COVID-19 patients in ICU reaches 150, it becomes more difficult to support medical needs not related to the disease. Furthermore, once 350 COVID-19 patients are in intensive care in the province, it becomes “impossible” to manage other medical needs.
Thursday’s projections also suggested that more than 200 COVID-19 patients will be admitted to Ontario’s ICUs in December “in any scenario.”
Where are the COVID-19 cases in Ontario?
Ontario’s three COVID-19 hot spots continue to be the most affected regions in the province. On Friday, the Peel region reported 517 new cases, Toronto reported 494 new cases, and the York region reported 189.
On Monday, Toronto and the Peel region entered the province’s lockdown phase, which forced most non-essential businesses, including gyms, shopping malls and personal care services, to close for at least 28 days.
Several other regions of Ontario have reported an increase in the number of COVID-19 cases. Halton region reported 130 cases, Hamilton reported 82 cases, Waterloo reported 74 cases, Durham region reported 65 cases, Ottawa reported 55 cases, Windsor-Essex reported 52 cases, and Simcoe-Muskoka reported 38 cases.
Most of the new COVID-19 cases reported on Friday involve people under the age of 80.
There were 686 infections in people aged 20 to 39 years, at least 564 in people aged 40 to 59 and 249 in people aged 60 to 79. There were 278 cases in people under the age of 19 years.
In total, Ontario has processed more than 6.1 million tests since the pandemic began in January. There are 54,241 COVID-19 tests still under investigation.
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