Ontario confirms more than 400 new COVID-19 cases for second straight day

Ontario logs more than 400 cases of COVID-19 For the second day in a row, Ontario is seeing a case count of more than 400 COVID-19 cases.

TORONTO — Ontario is reporting more than 400 new cases of COVID-19 for the second straight day.

Health officials confirmed 409 new cases of the novel coronavirus on Friday. The province had also reported the same number of new infections on Thursday.

The numbers jumped back into the 400s Thursday after a single-day drop the day before when the province reported 335 new infections Wednesday.

The province also reported on Friday that one more person has died due to COVID-19, bringing the total number of deaths to 2,837.

The new infections bring the province’s total number of lab-confirmed infections to 48,905, including 42,169 recoveries and the deaths.

Ontario Health Minister Christine Elliott said on Friday that 65 per cent (266) of the new cases involved people under the age of 40.

Ninety-seven involved people between the ages of 40 and 59 and 41 involved people between the ages of 60 and 70. Four people over the age of 80 were part of Friday’s case count.

Where are Ontario's new COVID-19 cases?

Nearly half of the new cases are in the City of Toronto. The province reported that 204 of the new cases are in Toronto, 66 are in Peel Region and 40 are in Ottawa.

These three regions have been considered the province’s COVID-19 hotspots over the past few weeks and were the first to have their gathering sizes reduced by the Ford government.

York Region also reported 33 new cases, while Durham Region and Halton Region both reported 12 new cases each.

There are currently 87 patients in an Ontario hospital with COVID-19, and 25 of them are being treated in an intensive care unit. Thirteen of those patients are breathing with the assistance of a ventilator.

Testing for COVID-19 in Ontario

More than 41,800 tests for COVID-19 were processed in the last recorded 24-hour period.

Friday’s positivity rate sits just below 1 per cent, which is lower than Thursday.

While this number has increased from August, it’s nowhere near the rate recorded in April and May when it reached 17 per cent at one point.

The province said that just over 65,000 tests currently remain under investigation in the province.

The Ontario government also announced this week that up to 60 pharmacies across the province will be offering COVID-19 testing starting Friday.

More than 3.7 million COVID-19 tests have been conducted in Ontario since the disease reached the province in late January.