Ontario records 323 new COVID-19 cases amid record number of tests completed in single day

People line up to be tested at a COVID-19 assessment centre in Toronto on Tuesday, May 26, 2020. (Nathan Denette/The Canadian Press)

TORONTO — Ontario has once again recorded more than 300 new patients with COVID-19, but the cases come as provincial labs completed a record-breaking number of tests in a single day.

Health officials confirmed another 323 cases of the novel coronavirus on Saturday, as well as 17 more deaths.

The new patients bring the total number of lab-confirmed cases of COVID-19 in the province to 27,533, including 2,247 deaths and 21,353 recoveries.

Tracking Ontario's 27,210 cases of COVID-19

The province reported a record-breaking number of COVID-19 tests completed in a single day with 20,640 tests being done, which marks the lowest positivity rates that the province has seen so far.

The number of COVID-19 tests conducted daily in Ontario had been increasing, although officials had yet to reach their goal of 20,000 per day. The day before, the province conducted 18,525 tests.

Ontario Premier Doug Ford had been urging residents who are asymptomatic and who think they may have been exposed to the disease to contact an assessment centre to get tested.

In Ontario, to date, 701,327 tests have been completed for the novel coronavirus. Currently, 12,760 test samples are under investigation.

On Friday, the province unveiled its new COVID-19 testing strategy, pledging a massive expansion in the next few weeks.

According to Saturday's epidemiological summary, eight of Ontario's deceased COVID-19 patients were between the ages of 20 and 39. Eighty-nine of all deceased patients in the province were between the ages of 40 and 59 and 590 people were between the ages of 60 and 79.

There have been no deaths recorded in people 19 years of age or younger.

People 80 years of age or older continue to be the hardest hit age group with 1,560 deaths.

There are currently 801 patients in Ontario hospitals with COVID-19. Of those, 121 are in intensive care.

Quick facts on all COVID-19 patients in Ontario: