Ontario records decline in new COVID-19 cases but says numbers are underestimated

TORONTO — Ontario is reporting a slight decline in the number of new COVID-19 cases but says unavailable data from Toronto yesterday has resulted in the numbers being underestimated.

Health officials reported 78 new cases of COVID-19 on Thursday, bringing the provincial total to 40,367.

"Updated data from the Toronto Public Health CORES system were not available today, resulting in an underestimation of the daily case count," the province said.

There were no new deaths in the previous 24-hour period. The number of resolved cases jumped by 99 cases.

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

There are currently 43 patients infected with the disease in Ontario hospitals. Of those patients, 20 are being treated in the intensive care unit and 10 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 120 were between the ages of 40 and 59 and 746 were between the ages of 60 and 79.

Sixty-two per cent of Wednesay's new cases are in people under the age of 40.

Where are the new COVID-19 cases?

Twenty-eight of the province's 34 public health units are reporting five or fewer cases.

The health regions reporting more than five cases include Ottawa, Peel Region, Windsor-Essex, Middlesex-London, Waterloo and Wellington-Dufferin-Guelph.

Testing for COVID-19 in Ontario

More than 2.4 million COVID-19 tests have been conducted in Ontario since the virus reached Ontario in late January.

In the last 24 hours, more than 29,626 tests were conducted.

As of 10:30 a.m. on Tuesday, 29,049 test samples are still under investigation.