Ontario records lowest number of new COVID-19 cases in more than 10 weeks

TORONTO -- For the second day in a row, health officials in Ontario are recording fewer than 300 cases of the novel coronavirus, which represent the lowest numbers of new infections in more than ten weeks.

Health officials confirmed an additional 230 cases on Tuesday, as well as 14 more deaths. Just yesterday, the province recorded 243 cases.

In total, there are now a total of 31,090 confirmed cases of COVID-19 in Ontario, including 24,829 resolved cases and 2,464 deaths. 

• Tracking COVID-19 in Ontario

In a Tweet on Tuesday, Ontario Health Minister Christine Elliott called the number trends “very promising.” 

“Today's day-over-day increase has fallen to 0.7 per cent, down from 0.8 per cent yesterday. Extensive efforts by the province and local public health units to contain the spread are working,” she wrote.

She also highlighted the fact that there are now more resolved cases than new cases of the novel coronavirus reported daily. 

Ontario, let's keep it up! Practice physical distancing, wear a mask when doing so is a challenge and wash your hands. As always, visit https://t.co/PGdf8QqEhn daily at 10:30 a.m. for the latest numbers and information on Ontario's battle against this virus.

— Christine Elliott (@celliottability) June 9, 2020

“Today, with 337 more resolved and 230 new cases, there are now 107 fewer active cases of COVID-19 in Ontario, an important downward trend,” she stated.

The low case numbers come after the ministry of health reported more than 400 cases of the disease on both Saturday and Sunday.

The province had said those numbers were inflated due to an error in lab reporting. The ministry did not report any delays in recording new cases in Monday or Tuesday's report.

According to Monday's epidemiologic summary, 1,715 people 80 years of age or older have died as a result of the virus. Another 645 deaths are in people between the ages of 60 and 79.

The number of deceased patients between the ages of 40 and 59 remains unchanged at 94, similarly the number of deaths as a result of COVID-19 in people between the ages of 20 and 39 remains at 10.

To this date, there have been no deaths recorded in people 19 years of age or younger.

There are currently 600 patients in hospital, including 116 who are being treated in intensive care units.

COVID-19 testing in Ontario

The province’s COVID-19 daily testing number fell to 13,509 tests conducted in the last 24-hour period.

On Monday, the province’s daily test number was at 15,357, which is well below the province’s goal of 20,000 tests per day. 

In total, the province has conducted more than 880,398 tests for the novel coronavirus. There are currently 13,509 tests under investigation.

Quick facts on all COVID-19 patients in Ontario:

• Public health units in the Greater Toronto Area account for 67.4 per cent of all cases.
• 44.8 per cent of all patients in the province are male and 54.4 per cent are female.
• 4 per cent of all patients are 19 years of age or younger.
• 27.5 per cent of all patients are between the ages of 20 and 39.
• 30.7 per cent of all patients are between the ages of 40 and 59.
• 19.6 per cent of all patients are between the ages of 60 and 79.
• 18.1 per cent of all patients are 80 years of age or older.
• 5.1 per cent of all patients had travelled in the 14 days prior to becoming ill.
• 62.5 per cent of all patients had close contact with a previously confirmed case or were "outbreak-associated."
• 21.5 per cent of all patients had “no known epidemiological link”
• 10.9 per cent of all patients had exposure information listed as "missing or unknown."