Ontario reports 1,417 new COVID-19 cases, 32 more deaths

Ontario reported an additional 1,417 cases of COVID-19 on Wednesday, as well as 32 more deaths linked to the illness — the most on any single day during the second wave of the pandemic that’s currently gripping parts of the province. 

The new cases include 463 in Peel Region, 410 in Toronto and 178 in York Region. 

They push the seven-day average of daily cases, a measure that helps to paint a clearer picture of longer-term trends in the data, to 1,422. 

Other regions that saw double-digit increases include:

• Halton Region: 63
• Waterloo: 54
• Hamilton: 46
• Durham: 40
• Simcoe Muskoka: 25
• Wellington-Dufferin-Guelph: 23
• Ottawa: 22
• Thunder Bay: 20
• Windsor: 17
• Southwestern: 14

Toronto, Peel, York, Halton and Hamilton are the public health units currently in the province’s red “control” tier of its colour-coded COVID-19 restrictions framework.

Another six are in the less-stringent orange “restrict” tier:

• Brant
• Durham
• Eastern Ontario
• Niagara 
• Ottawa
• Waterloo
• Wellington-Dufferin-Guelph

And yet another six are in the yellow “protect” category:

• Haldimand-Norfolk
• Huron-Perth
• Middlesex-London
• Sudbury
• Simcoe-Muskoka
• Southwestern
• Windsor-Essex

There are currently 12,822 confirmed, active cases of COVID-19 provincewide, 110 fewer than yesterday. Today is the first time in about a month that the number of recoveries, 1,495, has outpaced new infections. 

Ontario’s network of labs processed more than 33,400 test samples, according to Health Minister Christine Elliott, leading public health officials to report a test positivity rate of 4.1 per cent. 

Meanwhile, the number of people in Ontario hospitals with confirmed cases of COVID-19 climbed to 535, up six from yesterday. Of those, 127 are being treated in intensive care and 78 are on ventilators, three more than yesterday. A total of 38 patients with the novel coronavirus have been admitted to intensive care in the last three days. 

The province’s COVID-19-linked death toll grew to 3,415. The 32 additional deaths reported today is the most on a single day since June 6. 

A total of 29 of the deaths were seniors over the age of 70, while 26 of those 29 were residents in long-term care. 

[Note: 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.]