Ontario confirms 476 more cases of COVID-19, including 48 deaths

Ontario's top doctor provides COVID-19 update Ontario Chief Medical Officer of Health Dr. David Williams discussed the latest COVID-19 cases in the province.

TORONTO — Ontario health officials have confirmed 476 more cases of COVID-19 Saturday morning, including 48 additional deaths.

The new patients bring the total number of cases in the province to 13,995, including recoveries.

According to the province’s epidemiologic summary, three of the people who have died as a result of the virus were between the ages of 20 and 39.

There are 221 deaths between the ages of 60 and 79 and another 39 deaths between the ages of 40 and 59.

No deaths have been reported in patients 19 years of age or younger, though there are 309 lab-confirmed cases in that age group.

The age group most hit by COVID-19 continue to be the province’s elderly. Officials reported 548 people 80 years old and older have died as a result of the virus—more than half of the 811 people reported deceased in Ontario.

The province is also reporting 19 more outbreaks in long-term care homes, bringing the total number of facilities dealing with the illness in Ontario to 162.

At least 625 residents of long-term care homes in Ontario have died due to COVID-19 and more than 1,800 health-care workers have been diagnosed with the virus.

The new cases come one day after the province confirmed to CTV News Toronto that the death toll is significantly higher than the numbers reported each day due to a discrepancy in the data for long-term care homes.

Data provided by Ontario’s 34 local public health units on Saturday morning reported 842 deaths, 31 more than what was confirmed by the province.

Of the more than 13,000 people diagnosed with COVID-19, about 11.6 per cent were hospitalized at one point.

Nine hundred and twenty-five people are in the hospital due to COVID-19 as of Saturday, the province said, and 245 of those patients are in the intensive care unit (ICU). One hundred and ninety-five of those in the ICU are on a ventilator.

The province has completed 10,578 COVID-19 tests in the last 24 hours, about 1,727 less tests than the previous 24-hour cycle. Another 8,171 test samples remain under investigation.

The number of resolved cases has risen to 7,509.

Ontario Chief Medical Officer of Health Dr. David Williams said it is encouraging to see that cases outside of long-term care homes are dropping steadily.

“It looks like a number of metrics are going in the right direction,” Williams said.

Saturday’s case count represents a smaller increase than the 640 cases reported on Friday, which marked the highest number of cases reported in a single day.

Quick facts on all Ontario COVID-19 patients

• 41.6 per cent of all patients in the province are male and 57.4 per cent are female – 138 cases did not specify their gender

• 2.2 per cent of all patients are 19 years of age or younger

• 22.7 per cent of all patients are between the ages of 20 and 39

• 30.6 per cent of all patients are between the ages of 40 and 59

• 22.2 per cent of all patients are between the ages of 60 and 79

• 22.3 per cent of all patients are 80 years of age or older

• Public health units in the Greater Toronto Area account for 59.4 per cent of all cases in the province

• 9.3 per cent of all patients had travelled in the 14 days prior to becoming ill

• 18.7 per cent of all patients had contact with a previously confirmed case

• 34.9 per cent of all patients had community exposure

• 37 per cent of all patients had exposure information listed as pending