COVID-19 deaths top 2,000 in Ontario

Daily rise in infections has fallen sharply since peak in late April

More than 2,000 people have now died of COVID-19 in Ontario, according to the Star’s latest count.

As of 5 p.m. Monday, the province’s 34 regional health units were reporting 24,424 confirmed or probable cases of COVID-19, including 2,004 deaths. Those totals represented relatively low increases from the same time Sunday evening, at jumps of 310 new cases — a very low 1.3 per cent increase — and 20 deaths, both among the lowest single-day totals recorded in the province since early April. However, those low totals came amid a sharp decrease in COVID-19 testing over the long weekend.

Earlier Monday, the province reported the testing labs had completed just 9,155 tests on Sunday, down more than 7,000 from Saturday for the lowest single-day tally since April 17, a total far below the provincial target of 16,000 tests a day.

The drop was consistent with recent weekends, which have also seen notable slowdowns at both the testing labs and the assessment centres that collect patients’ samples for testing. Days with relatively low case totals have tended to follow testing lulls, and vice versa.

Still, as a whole, the daily growth in new COVID-19 infections across Ontario has fallen sharply since peaking at more than 700 cases a day in late April.

Meanwhile, the total of 20 deaths reported in the province since Sunday evening was well below the recent average, a sign the rate of new fatal cases in the province has turned a corner after peaking a more than 90 deaths in a day this month, about two weeks after the peak in the daily case totals.

Because many health units publish tallies to their websites before reporting to Public Health Ontario, the Star’s count is more current than the province’s morning data.

The province also reported 972 patients are now hospitalized with COVID-19, including 174 in intensive care, of whom 133 are on a ventilator — numbers that have fluctuated up and down in recent weeks.

More than 17,500 patients have tested positive for the coronavirus have now recovered from the disease — nearly three-quarters of the total infected.

The province says its data is accurate to 4 p.m. the previous day. The province also cautions its latest count of total deaths — 1,904 — may be incomplete or out of date due to delays in the reporting system, saying that in the event of a discrepancy, data reported by the health units should be considered the most up to date.