Ontario is reporting an additional 1,050 cases of COVID-19 Tuesday, which marks a new single-day high for the province.
The seven-day average of new cases, which helps smooth out noise in the data, is now up to 950. The province is also reporting 14 more deaths, with its official death toll standing at 3,166. Just under 64 per cent of those deaths were residents of long-term care homes.
Just 25,279 tests were completed yesterday. Public health officials said in September that they hoped to be processing upward of 68,000 tests per day by mid-November, with Monday’s testing number far below current daily capacity of about 45,000.
There were 408 new cases found in Toronto, 212 in Peel, 86 in Halton, 76 in York Region and 57 in Durham. There were also 837 resolved cases.
Other regions seeing double digit increases include Ottawa at 34 (a number far lower than daily case count that city was seeing weeks ago), Simcoe Muskoka at 21, Hamilton at 34, Niagara at 31 and Waterloo at 20.
Hospitalizations hit 357, with 73 patients currently in intensive care and 47 requiring a ventilator.
Currently, there are known outbreaks of COVID-19 in 78 of Ontario’s 626 long-term care homes.
Premier Doug Ford said Monday that health officials are working on a reopening plan that was set to go before his cabinet.
Last week, he revealed that he was asking the province’s health experts to come up with a way to allow more businesses to reopen in the areas hardest hit by the novel coronavirus.
The province is also set to launch an enhanced set of graphs Tuesday afternoon, showing more information about infection rates than has been easily accessible until now.
Ford will announce the new data page during his daily COVID-19 news briefing, CBC News has learned.
A prototype of the new web page, seen by CBC News, shows new graphs allowing users to compare COVID-19 case numbers between different public health units. Another new chart breaks down how the infections were contracted, whether through an outbreak, close contact with someone positive, or from an unknown source of community spread.
Have more questions about COVID-19 in Ontario? These CBC News stories will help:
What do the latest modelling numbers suggest about the spread of COVID-19 in Ontario?
How are hospitals coping?
Why are fewer people dying during the second wave of COVID-19?
Experts say there are a range of factors, but warn there’s still cause for concern
