TORONTO -- Ontario has recorded more than 1,400 new COVID-19 infections, pushing the province’s total case count since the pandemic began above 100,000.
On Friday, provincial health officials logged 1,418 new infections of the novel coronavirus, marking the 15th straight day of case counts reaching the quadruple digits.
The province’s daily case count is up slightly compared to Thursday when 1,210 cases were recorded. Before that, Ontario saw 1,417 logged on Wednesday, 1,249 on Tuesday, 1,487 on Monday, 1,248 on Sunday, and a record-breaking 1,581 on Saturday.
Ontario’s seven-day average for number of cases reported is now 1,372, up from 1,355 one week ago.
Friday’s report brings the province’s total number of lab-confirmed COVID-19 cases to 100,790, including deaths and recoveries.
Eight new deaths linked to the disease were confirmed by provincial health officials on Friday, bringing Ontario’s death toll to 3,451. Four of the deaths confirmed Friday were residents of long-term care homes in the province.
Provincial health officials deemed 1,415 more cases to be resolved as of Friday, brining the total number of recovered patients in Ontario to 84,716.
Currently, there are 12,623 active COVID-19 cases in Ontario.
According to the province’s data released on Friday, there are 518 COVID-19 patients receiving treatment in Ontario hospitals. Of those patients, 142 of them are in the intensive care unit (ICU) and 92 of those 142 are breathing with the assistance of a ventilator.
On Thursday, CTV News Toronto obtained a report by Critical Care Services Ontario that confirmed there were 150 patients in the province’s ICUs due to the novel coronavirus.
The province has previously stated that once the number of COVID-19 patients in the ICU reaches 150 it becomes harder to support medical needs not related to the disease. Furthermore, once 350 COVID-19 patients are in the ICU in the province, it becomes “impossible” to handle other medical needs.
The provincial government announced on Friday that public health orders currently in effect will remain in place for another month. That announcement came ahead of Premier Doug Ford holding a news conference on Friday afternoon. He is expected to release new public health measures to fight the surging spread of the disease in hot spot regions.
Where are the new COVID-19 cases?
Of the new patients logged on Friday, 400 are in Peel Region, 393 are in Toronto and 168 are in York Region.
There were also 77 new cases recorded in Ottawa, 46 in Durham Region, 45 in Windsor-Essex, 37 in Middlesex-London, 36 in both Hamilton and Halton Region, and 33 in Simcoe Muskoka.
Most of the new infections logged on Friday are in people between the ages of 20 and 39, with 524 cases recorded in that age category. There were also 387 new infections found in people between the ages of 40 and 59, and 189 new infections in people between the ages of 60 and 79. People 19 years of age and younger account for 230 of the new infections and 85 new infections were found in people 80 years of age of older.
COVID-19 testing in Ontario
Since the start of the pandemic in January, Ontario has conducted more than 5.8 million tests for the novel coronavirus.
In the last-recorded 24-hour period, 48,173 tests were completed, generating a positivity rate of 3.6 per cent when duplicate tests and errors are accounted for.
There are currently 46,609 tests remaining under investigation in the province.
The province has yet to reach its COVID-19 testing capacity of 50,000 per day.
