TORONTO -- Ontario health officials have confirmed 551 more cases of COVID-19 and 38 new deaths.

The new patients, announced on Tuesday morning, bring the provincial total number of cases to 11,735, including 622 deaths and 5,806 recoveries.

Tuesday’s epidemiological summary released by provincial health officials at 10:30 a.m. lists one deceased patient as being between the ages of 20 and 39. Thirty-two people who have died of the disease in the province were between the ages of 40 and 59, 172 others were between the ages of 60 and 79 and 417 people were 80 years of age or older.

Of the 622 deceased patients in the province, 399 were residents of a long-term care home, Ontario’s Associate Chief Medical Officer of Health Dr. Barbara Yaffe confirmed based on data provided by the Ministry of Long-Term Care on Tuesday afternoon at a daily news conference held at Queen’s Park.

Yaffe’s statement comes after the province’s summary reported 273 deaths in long-term care homes.

All of the data reported in Tuesday’s provincial summary is taken from the integrated Public Health Information System database as of 4 p.m. on April 20 and from Toronto Public Health’s independent Coronavirus Rapid Entry System as of 2 p.m. on April 20.

“There are different databases used to collect the details surrounding outbreaks at long-term care homes and every database has strengths and weaknesses and we use them all to help understand what is going on in terms of the disease spread and public health actions, but today I am going to use the numbers provided to us by the Minister of Long-Term Care because they are probably the most timely data,” she said.

There have been 128 outbreaks reported at long-term care homes across the province to date, Yaffe said. That is 20 per cent of all facilities in Ontario.

According to this data, as of 3:30 p.m. on Monday there have been 1,618 confirmed positive cases of COVID-19 among residents of long-term care homes in Ontario and 867 confirmed positive cases among staff at these facilities.

One staff member at a Toronto long-term care home has died of the novel coronavirus. This was the province’s first health-care worker to die of the disease.

Of all COVID-19 patients in Ontario, 1,368 of them are health-care workers.

Currently, 859 patients in Ontario remain in hospital receiving treatment. That number is up from 802 patients reported by health officials on Monday. Of those 859 patients, 250 of them are in an intensive care unit and 195 of those 250 patients remain on a ventilator to assist with breathing.

Tuesday’s data comes one day after provincial health officials released models forecasting the spread of the deadly disease and stated that the wave of new community spread cases of the novel coronavirus appears to have peaked, but the spread in long-term care homes and other congregate settings seems to be growing.

“We are cautiously optimistic about community spread, but, of course, we need to continue with public health measures,” Yaffe said at Tuesday’s news conference. “The spread in long-term care homes and other congregate settings seems to be growing.”

Quick facts on all Ontario COVID-19 patients:

  • 11.9 per cent of all patients have been hospitalized at one point
  • 42.2 per cent of all patients in the province are male and 56.8 per cent are female – 117 cases did not specify male or female gender
  • 43.8 per cent of all patients are 60 years of age or older – nine cases did not specify their age
  • 2.2 per cent of all patients are 19 years of age or younger
  • 22.6 per cent of all patients are between the ages of 20 and 39
  • 31.2 per cent of all patients are between the ages of 40 and 59
  • 22.9 per cent of all patients are between the ages of 60 and 79
  • 20.9 per cent of all patients are 80 years of age or older
  • Public health units in the Greater Toronto Area account for 58.7 per cent of all cases in the province
  • 10.7 per cent of all patients had travelled in the 14 days prior to becoming ill
  • 17.4 per cent of all patients had contact with a previously confirmed case
  • 30.5 per cent of all patients had community exposure
  • 41.4 per cent of all patients had exposure information listed as pending

COVID-19 testing in Ontario

So far, the province has conducted 174,170 tests for the novel coronavirus.

In recent days, the province has ramped up its testing with 9,330 being conducted between 12:00 a.m. and 11:59 p.m. on Monday.

There are currently 5,546 test samples in Ontario that remain under investigation for COVID-19.