TORONTO -- The number of COVID-19 cases in Ontario has now surpassed 14,000.
Ontario health officials confirmed an additional 437 cases of the virus late Sunday morning, including 24 more deaths. This marks the lowest number of cases and deaths reported in a single day since April 13.
Including resolved cases and deaths, the new patients bring the province’s total case count to 14,432.
Sunday’s epidemiologic summary shows that another patient between the ages of 20 and 39 has died. Four people within that age group have now succumbed to the virus.
While 320 people under the age of 20 have tested positive for COVID-19, none of them have died.
Of the 835 people who have been reported deceased by provincial health officials, 39 are between the ages of 40 and 59 and another 227 are between the ages of 60 and 79.
Five hundred and sixty-five deaths have been reported in seniors aged 80 and older.
Long-term care homes continue to be plagued with COVID-19 outbreaks. The province has reported five more outbreaks in Ontario facilities, bringing the total number of long-term care homes dealing with the virus to 167.
At least 654 residents of long-term care homes in Ontario have died due to COVID-19 and more than 1,900 health-care workers have been diagnosed with the virus.
Of the more than 14,000 people diagnosed with COVID-19, about 11. 5 per cent were hospitalized at some point.
The number of people currently in the hospital has increased to 938, the province said, and 252 of those patients are in the intensive care unit (ICU).
One hundred and ninety-five of those in the ICU are on a ventilator.
The province appears to have ramped up testing in the last 24 hours, conducted more than 12,000 tests compared to the 10,578 reported on Saturday. There are more than 7,000 test samples still under investigation.
On Saturday, Ontario’s Chief medical Officer of Health Dr. David Williams said that the drop in new cases since Friday, which marked the highest number of cases reported in a single day, is encouraging.
“It looks like a number of metrics are going in the right direction,” he said.
“At the beginning of April we peaked at about 12 or 13 per cent positivity (of all tests) and today it is down to five per cent. That is a significant drop but it is one day so let’s see what happens over the weekend and in the early parts of next week.”
There are now 8,000 COVID-19 cases that have been resolved.
Quick facts on all Ontario COVID-19 patients
• 41.6 per cent of all patients in the province are male and 57.4 per cent are female – 137 did not specify a male or female gender and nine patients’ ages are unknown.
• 2.2 per cent of all patients are 19 years of age or younger
• 22.8 per cent of all patients are between the ages of 20 and 39
• 30.4 per cent of all patients are between the ages of 40 and 59
• 22.2 per cent of all patients are between the ages of 60 and 79
• 22.3 per cent of all patients are 80 years of age or older
• Public health units in the Greater Toronto Area account for 59.5 per cent of all cases in the province
• 9.2 per cent of all patients had travelled in the 14 days prior to becoming ill
• 19.1 per cent of all patients had contact with a previously confirmed case
• 35.7 per cent of all patients had community exposure
• 36 per cent of all patients had exposure information listed as pending