Ontario reports 2,400 COVID-19 cases, 27 more deaths

Ontario is reporting 2,400 new COVID-19 cases and 27 additional deaths on Thursday.

The province’s test positivity rate is 5.2 per cent, the same as a day ago and down from 5.7 per cent a week ago.

There were 45,406 tests completed in the last 24-hour period, up from over 38,000 a day ago.

There were nearly 48,000 tests completed on Thursday last week.

Locally there are 607 new cases in Toronto, 528 in Peel, 224 in Hamilton, 181 in York Region and 110 in Durham

The province is back over 2,000 cases after reporting the lowest daily increase of new cases since March on Wednesday. Ontario also reported fewer than 2,000 new cases on Tuesday.

Monday saw the smallest number of deaths since March 22.

Resolved cases have now outnumbered new cases every day since late April. There were 2,763 more resolved cases reported, dropping the active case count by 363.

There are now 1,320 people hospitalized in the province with 721 in the ICU. Hospitalizations are down more than 300 from one week ago and ICU numbers are at the lowest point since April 17.

---

RELATED:

• De Villa asking residents to be safe over long weekend to avoid increase in COVID cases

• Pop-up vaccination clinics in Toronto

---

On the vaccine front, there were 144,986 doses administered in the last 24-hour period.

As of 8:00 p.m. Wednesday, 7,576,624 doses of the COVID-19 vaccine have been administered.

Ontario has said it plans to open vaccine booking to all youth aged 12 and older starting the week of May 31.

But the government allowed public health units to vaccinate kids aged 12 and up at pop-ups, mobile clinics and for walk-in appointments where the Pfizer vaccine is offered.

Some health units using their own booking systems are moving ahead of schedule. Youth aged 12 and older in Peel Region can book COVID-19 vaccines as of Thursday, joining other health units that are building plans to start vaccinating teenagers in the coming weeks.

The Ford government is expected to unveil a reopening plan on Thursday afternoon that could allow for some outdoor activities to resume as early as this weekend.

The province will reportedly announce a “sector-by-sector” reopening, instead of a regional approach. Expectation is the plan will be slowly phased in over the summer months after the stay-at-home order lifts on June 2.

There is also speculation the province will finally give-in and reopen outdoor activities, possibly as early as this weekend.

680 NEWS has learned an outline of the reopening plan that went to cabinet for discussion would allow for outdoor recreational activities including golf and tennis to reopen as of Saturday. The plan would see outdoor dining reopen sometime in June.

There are also reports outdoor gatherings of up to five people from other households would be permitted.