New COVID-19 cases in Ontario surge to highest number in more than a month

TORONTO — Ontario is reporting a surge in the number of new COVID-19 cases, recording the highest number of infections in more than a month.

Health officials confirmed 148 new infections on Saturday. The last time Ontario reported a number this high was on July 24, when 195 new cases were recorded.

There were no new deaths in the previous 24-hours period. Ontario also added 103 additional resolved cases.

The resolved cases in Ontario now account for more than 90 per cent of infections.

Ontario has only reported one day this week with a daily case count under 100 new infections. On Friday, 122 new cases were reported while on Thursday 118 were added.

The lowest number of new cases this week was on Wednesday when 88 new infections were recorded.

There are currently 51 patients infected with the disease in Ontario hospitals. Of those patients, 17 are being treated in the intensive care unit and five of those are breathing with the assistance of a ventilator.

The majority of total deaths to date have been reported in people over the age of 70.

One person, under the age of 19, who had COVID-19 died in Ontario, but it is not clear if the death was caused by the disease or other health issues.

Eleven patients who died were between the ages of 20 and 39, while 121 were between the ages of 40 and 59 and 752 were between the ages of 60 and 79.

More than 56 per cent of Saturday's new cases are in people under the age of 40.

Where are the new cases?

The three health units reporting the most new cases are Toronto with 41, Peel Region with 32 and Ottawa with 20.

The other health units with more than five new cases on Saturday are York Region, Windsor-Essex, Waterloo and Durham.

There were 18 health units that reported no new cases.

Testing for COVID-19 in Ontario

More than 2.9 million COVID-19 tests have been conducted in Ontario since the virus reached Ontario in late January.

In the last 24 hours, more than 32,100 tests were conducted.

As of 10:30 a.m. on Saturday, 29,491 test samples are still under investigation.