[ad_1]
Ontario is reporting a record number of new COVID-19 cases, but it comes when labs in the province have performed more than 58,000 individual tests, indicating a lower overall positivity rate.
The health ministry says 1,855 new cases of the disease caused by the novel coronavirus and another 20 deaths were confirmed on Thursday, 13 of which involved long-term nursing home residents.
This is a sizable increase from the previous daily record of 1,588 cases, but it coincides with a huge leap in testing. On Thursday, the province’s laboratories were able to perform approximately 58,137 individual tests, nearly 10,000 more than the previous high of 48,488 that had been held back on 8 October.
As a result, the ministry says the positive percentage for the past 24 hours was actually 3.7 percent, which is the lowest in more than a week.
However, the sheer number of new cases is worrying.
Today’s total represents a 25% increase from yesterday’s number (1,478 new cases) and pushes the seven-day average to 1,489.
That number had stood at 1,372 at this point last week and 1,355 a week earlier (November 13) as cases had temporarily stabilized after a significant increase in early November.
But they could rise again.
Of the new cases confirmed on Friday, more than half involved Toronto residents (494 new cases) or Peel (517). Meanwhile, York had 189 new cases, Halton 130, Durham 65, and Hamilton 82.
The hot spot for infection outside the GTA was Waterloo with 74 new cases.
Only four of Ontario’s 34 public health units have not reported any new cases.
As of this summer, more than half of Ontario’s public health units were not regularly reporting new cases.
The number of records comes after a new modeling is released
The latest numbers come a day after the new modeling was released, which seemed to suggest the province is no longer following the disastrous trajectory it appeared to be earlier this month when officials warned that we could be at 6,500 daily cases by half. of December. .
The new model outlined three scenarios for future case growth, one that would see Ontario hit 2,000 cases per day by the end of December, another that would see 4,000 cases per day at that point, and a third “worst case scenario” which would see Ontario reach 9,000 cases daily.
Speaking with CP24 ahead of the release of the latest issues on Friday morning, infectious disease specialist Dr. Issac Bogoch said there was “evidence that we may be flattening the curve”, but said the position we are in is “precarious”. . the extraordinarily high number of new cases that we continue to see.
“There may be early signs that things are stabilizing. If that’s so great. But on the other hand we are really walking a tightrope here. Because if we see more growth, we will expand our healthcare system and know how dangerous it can be, “he said.
The model released Thursday warned that the province will have more than 200 COVID patients in intensive care units by December in any scenario, threatening the ability of some hospitals to perform surgery and elective procedures.
In data released on Friday, the ministry said there are now 151 COVID patients in intensive care units, including 101 people breathing with the assistance of a ventilator.
The number of people in the ICU peaked at 264 in April, but it was with all hospitals that suspended their surgeries and elective procedures, something the province hopes to avoid this time around.
“While it’s great that we’re not accelerating with exponential growth, it’s hard to absorb this number of new cases per day,” Bogoch warned on Friday. “This will still have a significant impact on the health system and there are still many people who will get sick.”
.
[ad_2]
Source link
