Ontario reports 122 new COVID-19 cases as hospitalizations climb

Ontario reported an additional 122 cases COVID-19 on Friday, while the number of patients in hospital with confirmed infections of the novel coronavirus climbed considerably.

The new cases are concentrated primarily in the Greater Toronto Area, with 32 in Toronto, 27 in Peel Region and 15 in York Region. Ottawa reported another 17 cases as well.

The rest are scattered throughout various regions of southern and eastern Ontario.

After falling to below 80 on August 9, the five-day rolling average new daily cases — a measure that smoothes peaks and valleys in data — has been trending upward since.

The province has now seen a total 41,935 confirmed cases of COVID-19 since the outbreak began in late January. Of those, around 90.7 per cent are considered resolved. Another 83 were marked resolved in today’s report.

There are currently about 1,103 confirmed, active infections provincewide, a figure that has slowly but steadily increased over the last several days.

Sixty-one patients in Ontario hospitals have COVID-19, up from 48 the day before. While a relatively large jump, the number is still only a fraction of the more than 1,000 who were hospitalized at the peak of Ontario’s outbreak.

Those being treated in intensive care units held steady at 18, while the number of patients on ventilators fell to 12 from 19, the current high for the month of August.

Ontario’s network of community, commercial and hospital labs processed nearly 32,000 test samples for the novel coronavirus yesterday. The province has now completed more than 700,000 tests this month, with less 0.4 per cent coming back positive.

Meanwhile, the province’s official death toll grew by six and now sits at 2,809. A CBC News count based on data from public health units, a measure that avoids lag times in the provincial reporting system, however, puts the actual toll at 2,839.

All of the figures used in this story are found in the Ministry of Health’s daily update, which includes data from up until 4 p.m. the previous day. The number of cases for any particular region on a given day may differ from what is reported by the local public health unit.

CBC