TORONTO -- Ontario health officials are reporting 111 new cases of COVID-19 this morning, the lowest number of new cases recorded since March 25.
Friday’s report brings the total number of confirmed cases in the province to 34,316 – a 0.3 per cent increase over Thursday’s total, when 189 new lab-confirmed cases were added.
“While very welcome news, we shouldn’t draw too many conclusions from one day of data,” Christine Elliott, Ontario’s minister of health, said in a tweet published Friday morning.
The daily number of new cases of the novel coronavirus reported in Ontario this week has been relatively low. Aside from a slight increase on Tuesday, the province has continued to report fewer than 200 lab-confirmed cases per day.
“We’ll continue to keep a close eye on what is hopefully the continuation of our downward trend," Elliott added.
The number of active COVID-19 cases in Ontario now stands at 1,918, with 226 existing cases now considered resolved by the ministry of health. To date, 29,754 patients in Ontario have recovered from the virus.
Three more deaths were reported in Ontario over the last 24-hour period, pushing the COVID-19 death toll in the province to 2,644.
According to Friday's epidemiologic summary, there are 256 patients in Ontario hospitals receiving treatment for the virus. Of those 256 patients, 61 are being treated in an intensive care unit, 41 of which are breathing with the assistance of a ventilator.
Where are the new COVID-19 cases?
Most of the Ontario’s 34 public health units reported fewer than five new cases of COVID-19 on Friday. In fact, several regions reported no new cases at all.
“We are making tremendous progress in beating COVID-19,” Premier Ford said in a tweet this morning. “Keep it up Ontario,” he added.
Ford’s congratulatory message comes as Toronto, Peel Region and Windsor-Essex all entered Stage 2 of Ontario’s reopening plan earlier this week, the last three regions in the province to do so.
Toronto added 30 new cases of the virus on Friday and Peel Region added 29 new cases.
Windsor-Essex reported six new cases, though it should be noted that the municipalities of Leamington and Kingsville, which are experiencing COVID-19 outbreaks in their agri-farm sector, have been held back from reopening.
Update on COVID-19 testing in Ontario
Close to 31,000 tests were processed in Ontario over the last 24-hour period, a new record for the province.
More than 1.2 million tests for the novel coronavirus have been completed since the pandemic began.
There are currently 27, 344 tests under investigation, according to the ministry of health.
"Testing in Ontario remains at all-time highs—and with so few cases our positivity rate has dropped to new lows," Elliott said in a tweet.
