Ontario to stop daily reporting of COVID-19 data after more than two years

Ontario is shifting its COVID-19 data reporting from daily to weekly updates beginning next week.

“Starting on June 16th, Public Health Ontario (PHO) will move to weekly reporting and will publish the latest COVID-19 data each Thursday,” Ministry of Health spokesperson Alexandra Hilkene said in a statement issued on Friday afternoon.

Since January 2020, the province has been posting spreadsheets of data on hospitalizations, intensive care admissions and case counts linked to the virus. Stepping away from this daily ritual is part of a wider trend towards loosening restrictions tied to COVID-19 in Ontario.

This update comes as the province prepares to end its mask mandate on Saturday – one of the last lingering public health precautions still present in the province.

• Mask mandates in Ontario to lift June 11

Moving forward, masks will no longer be required on public transit, in hospitals and in shelters.

The Ministry of Health says that PHO will keep monitoring trends and shape their reporting as needed in the weeks and months ahead. This data will still be available on the province’s Open Data Catalog.

In addition to the frequency of their updates, the province is also reducing “duplicative reporting,” such as data on COVID-19 cases at long-term care homes and schools. Other public health units and school boards will still supply this information, but it won’t be included in the provincial dataset.

Health officials say that this transition follows similar decisions made by several other Canadian jurisdictions, such as British Columbia and Alberta, along with the Ontario Hospital Association.

Also, given the fact that Ontario ended its proof of vaccination program months ago, Verify Ontario will officially be removed from the app store by June 24.