Ontario reports nearly 1,900 new COVID-19 cases, 28 more deaths

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TORONTO — Ontario is reporting nearly 1,900 new COVID-19 cases and 28 more deaths linked to the disease.

Provincial health officials logged 1,890 more infections of the novel coronavirus on Wednesday.

Wednesday’s case count shows an increase from Tuesday when 1,676 new infections were recorded. Before that, Ontario saw three days of record-breaking case counts with 1,925 new cases logged on Monday, 1,924 logged on Sunday and 1,859 logged on Saturday.

Ontario’s seven-day average for number of cases reported is now 1,839.

Of the new cases logged on Wednesday, 517 were in Toronto, 471 were in Peel Region and 187 were in York Region. There were also 97 new cases found in Hamilton, 96 in Halton Region, 94 in Windsor-Essex, 75 in Durham Region, and 64 in Waterloo Region.

There have been a total of 132,800 COVID-19 cases confirmed in Ontario since the beginning of the pandemic, including deaths and recoveries.

Eleven of the 28 deaths confirmed by officials on Wednesday were among residents of Ontario’s long-term care system. The province’s COVID-19 death toll is now 3,836.

Officials deemed 1,924 more cases of the novel coronavirus in Ontario to be resolved as of Wednesday.

There are currently 16,089 active cases in the province.

On Wednesday, the province’s data showed that 811 people are currently in Ontario hospitals with COVID-19. Of those patients, 221 are being treated in the intensive care unit (ICU) and 129 of those 221 patients are breathing with the assistance of a ventilator.

Last month, the Ontario government said that it becomes nearly impossible to treat non-COVID-19-related patients once there are more than 300 patients in the ICU. Modelling released by the province last month suggested Ontario could cross that threshold by mid-December.

Since the pandemic began, more than 6.7 million tests for the disease have been conducted in Ontario.

There were 48,546 tests completed in the last-recorded 24-hour period. The province’s testing positivity rate is at least 4.4 per cent, down from five per cent on Tuesday.

Currently, 54,613 tests remain under investigation in the province.