Ontario reports record COVID-19 cases for 2nd day in a row, ICU patients hit 700

Ontario is reporting 4,812 new COVID-19 cases and 25 additional deaths on Friday.

The daily increase is the highest the province has seen since the start of the pandemic, marking the second straight day with a record-breaking case count.

Locally, there are 1,469 new cases in Toronto, 851 in Peel, 491 in York Region, 366 in Ottawa and 268 in Durham.

It is also a record number of infections coming from Toronto. The city has seen more than 1,000 cases for the sixth day in a row.

There were 64,304 tests completed in the last 24 hour period, down slightly from the nearly 66,000 tests completed a day ago.

The province reports a test positivity rate of 8.2 per cent, up slightly from 8 per cent a day ago and up from 6.3 per cent on the same day last week.

The province reported 4,736 cases and 29 deaths on Thursday.

The rolling seven-day average of cases is up to 4,292. That number is up more than 1,000 cases from one week ago and it is the highest seven-day average ever.

There are now 1,955 people hospitalized in the province due to COVID-19 with 701 in the ICU. Both numbers are records since the start of the pandemic.

According to the latest provincial numbers, there are 2,897 additional cases of the B.1.1.7 variant, 11 additional cases of the P.1 variant first detected in Brazil and 4 cases of the B.1351 variant first detected in South Africa.

There are now 30,175 cumulative cases of the B.1.1.7 variant, 202 cases of the P.1 variant and 99 cases of the B.1.351 variant.

There are 39,977 active cases in the province, the B.1.1.7 variant now makes up approximately 75 per cent of the active cases.

There were 115,634 vaccine doses administered in the last 24 hour period. That marks a new single-day record for vaccinations.

As of 8:00 p.m. Thursday, 3,644,038 doses of the COVID-19 vaccine have been administered.

The latest projections from Ontario’s Science Advisory Table are due out on Friday and will reportedly show the province could see more than 18,000 new infections a day if growth continues at the current rate.

The grim numbers are expected even with continuing vaccinations, though the modelling reportedly suggests daily increases could drop down to 10,000 a day with enhanced public health measures.

The new numbers are also expected to suggest Ontario could see up to 1,800 COVID patients in intensive care by the time June arrives.

Premier Doug Ford met with his cabinet and is expected to unveil new public health measures on Friday afternoon.

Sources confirm to 680 NEWS that a provincewide curfew is not one of the measures being considered at this time. The measure was discussed at a cabinet meeting Thursday and sources say while it’s currently off the table, things could change as no final decisions have been made.

It’s believed Premier Ford is looking at a host of other measures that could include restrictions to non-essential construction.

The Canadian Medical Association is calling for unprecedented measures to address the COVID-19 crisis unfolding in several provinces.

In a release, the CMA recommends sharing health-care resources across provincial and territorial borders to help jurisdictions that are currently at crisis levels with ICUs and hospital capacity.