Ontario reports 125 new COVID-19 cases, the most on any day in August so far

Ontario reported an additional 125 cases of COVID-19 on Tuesday, the most on any single day since the end of July.

In a series of tweets, Health Minister Christine Elliott acknowledged the slight uptick relative to recent days but attributed it to “localized increases” in a handful of public health units.

Windsor-Essex saw the most new cases, with 28. Toronto confirmed another 27, Peel had 17, Waterloo reported 12 and Ottawa eight.

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, which often avoid lag times in the provincial system.

Ontario has now seen a total of 40,870 confirmed infections of the novel coronavirus since the outbreak began in late January. Of those, about 90.8 per cent are considered resolved. Another 90 were marked resolved in today’s report.

There are currently some 951 confirmed, active cases provincewide.

After three straight days of zero new deaths, Ontario’s official COVID-19 death toll grew by four and now sits at 2,793. A CBC New count based on data from public health units, a measure that avoids lag times in the provincial reporting system, puts the real toll at 2,827 as of yesterday evening.

The province’s network of about 30 labs processed 23,067 test samples since the last update and another 16,128 were added to the queue to be completed.

Premier Doug Ford is scheduled to hold his daily COVID-19 briefing beginning at 1 p.m. in Scarborough. Ford’s office says he will be joined by Kinga Surma, associate minister of transportation for the GTA.

Eviction protest in Toronto

Dozens gathered in downtown Toronto Tuesday to protest the restart of evictions enforcement in the city.

Demonstrators blocked off a garage used by sheriffs at the 361 University Avenue courthouse in order to prevent them from leaving in their vehicles to enforce eviction orders.

The Ontario Landlord and Tenant Board began processing eviction applications again on August 4, after a provincial moratorium on the process was officially lifted.In July, the provincial government passed Bill 184, controversial piece of legislation that tenant advocacy groups have argued will make it easier for landlords to obtain eviction orders.

Opponents say it will harm Ontario’s most vulnerable renters, while some landlords, on the other hand, say it doesn’t go far enough to address their concerns about the resolution process for disagreements with tenants.

Infant hearing checks restart

Meanwhile, the government announced today it is restarting in-person infant hearing checks after the service was temporarily halted as part of the province’s emergency COVID-19 measures.

It says it will also commit $3.8 million to ensure that newborns who missed their check because of the shutdown will have the option of having one done.

Infants usually receive their check before they are discharged from the hospital or, in some cases, in community locations.

“Supporting the health and well-being of newborns and their families is a priority,” said Todd Smith, minister of children, community and social services said in a news release.

CBC