Hospitalizations rise as Ontario reports drop in COVID-19 cases with less testing

Ontario is reporting 1,676 new cases of COVID-19 on Tuesday with nearly 39,200 tests completed.

This marks a drop in cases after the province reported a record-high the previous three days. It’s the first time in more than a week that Ontario has reported less than 1,700 new cases.

The decrease in cases comes with less completed tests. The province reported nearly 39,200 completed tests after reporting almost 60,000 for two straight days over the weekend. Nearly 45,300 completed tests were reported on Monday.

The rolling seven day average now sits at 1,816.

Ontario reports 10 new deaths on Tuesday compared to 26 one day ago.

Five of the deaths come from residents of long-term care homes. Homes in the province report 38 new cases among residents and 18 among workers.

There are 1,549 more resolved cases.

There is now a total of 130,910 confirmed cases in the province since the onset of the pandemic with 3,808 deaths. Of the confirmed cases 16,151 are active and 110,951 have been resolved.

Among active cases, 794 people are currently in the hospital, this number up 69 patients from one day ago. Among the hospitalized, 219 are in the ICU and 132 are on ventilators.

More than half of new cases come from people under the age of 40.

Locally, there are 588 new cases in Toronto, 349 in Peel and 141 in York Region.

All three regions saw a drop in cases from the previous day with Peel seeing the most significant decrease, more than 150 fewer cases than Monday.

Durham Region also saw a significant drop, reporting 77 compared to 133 on Monday. Halton is the only region in the GTA reporting more cases, up 66 from 54.

Overall the GTA reported 1,221 new cases which is down from the 1,467 reported the previous day. The drop is consistent with the decrease in new cases for the entire province.

 

COVID-19 in schools

The province reported 333 new cases in schools.

This represents a large spike in cases but the province says it is a reflection of over three days of data.

NEW – Ontario reports 333 new COVID-19 cases in schools today, however the government says this is a reflection of over three days of data.

— Richard Southern (@RichardCityNews) December 8, 2020

Among the new cases in schools, 278 are related to students, while 55 are linked to staff.

Over 17 percent of schools in the province currently have a reported case of the virus. Eleven schools in Ontario are currently closed as a result of COVID-19.

You can find which schools are reporting cases on the province’s website, when it is updated daily at 10:30 a.m.