Ontario reports less than 2,000 COVID-19 cases amid drop in testing, technical issue in reporting

Ontario is reporting 1,913 new cases of COVID-19 and 46 deaths on Tuesday.

Locally, there are 550 new cases in Toronto, 346 in Peel and 235 in York Region.

It’s the first time since Dec. 28 that the province reported less than 2,000 new cases however the number comes with a significant drop in testing and a technical issue at Toronto Public Health means a likely underreporting of cases.

The province reported over 34,500 tests completed, the lowest mark since Dec. 29. Ontario completed over 60,000 tests just two days ago.

The test positivity rate is up to 6.8 percent. That number is up from 6.6 on Monday and is the highest positivity rate since Jan. 12.

The province reported 2,578 new cases and 29 deaths on Monday.

The rolling seven-day average of new cases drops to 2,893. It is the eighth straight day that number has decreased after peaking at 3,555 on Jan. 11.

There is now a total of 242,277 confirmed cases in the province since the onset of the pandemic with 5,479 deaths. Of the confirmed cases 27,615 are active and 209,183 have been resolved.

There are 2,873 more resolved cases. The province has reported more resolved than new cases in seven of the last eight days.

Among active cases,1,626 people are currently in the hospital. Hospitalizations are actually down from one week ago when the province was reporting a record 1,701 COVID-19 patients were hospitalized.

Among the hospitalized, 400 are in the ICU and 292 are on ventilators. The number of ICU patients has reached the 400 mark for the first time since the start of the pandemic.

Of the new deaths, 20 come from residents of long-term care homes. There are 75 new cases from long-term care home residents and 57 from staff.

Overall, the GTA is reporting fewer cases, 1,284, compared to the 1,628 cases reported a day ago. The GTA is responsible for just over 67 per cent of the province’s new daily cases compared to just over 63 per cent a day ago.

Toronto saw a considerable drop in cases but it comes with the technical issue from Toronto Public Health. Toronto cases are down to 550 from 813 on Monday. Peel also saw a considerable drop down to 346 from 507.

Two regions in the GTA saw an increase with York up to 235 from 151 and Durham up to 82 from 76.

Halton cases dropped to 71 from 79.