Ontario sets record of over 2,000 new cases

Ontario reported more than 2,000 new cases of COVID-19 Tuesday — a record — but the province announced changes to how it collects this data.

Health Minister Christine Elliott said in a tweet that 2,275 cases of COVID-19 were confirmed, including 711 in Toronto, 586 in Peel Region, 185 in Windsor-essex and 154 in York Region.

Ontario has seen several days during the second wave of the pandemic where the daily number of new cases surpassed 1,900, but this is the first over 2,000.

Another 92 cases were recorded in Durham and 99 in Hamilton.

A provincial spokesperson said Public Health Ontario has changed its data extraction process and time so that Tuesday's count covers 26.5 hours rather than the usual 24 hours.

The changes also meant that Ottawa recorded a negative number of new cases Tuesday.

Another 20 deaths were linked to the pandemic — 3,992 in total since mid-january. Hospitalizations were also up, with 921 COVID-19 patients admitted, 249 in intensive care and 156 on ventilators.

NDP Leader Andrea Horwath accused Premier Doug Ford of “waving a white flag” in the battle with COVID-19, underspending when there's a need to hire thousands of staff and infection control experts for long-term care, cap class sizes, and provide paid sick days for workers who become ill with the virus.

“Today's exploding COVID-19 case numbers in Ontario are the biggest alarm bell yet that just waiting for a vaccine is a dangerous plan,” Horwath said in a statement Tuesday.

“Doug Ford has been withholding $12 billion in COVID-19 funding, and it would be wrong of him to keep sitting on it … we can take some comfort knowing that the vaccine is a light at the end of the tunnel, but that can't be an excuse to stop taking urgent and necessary actions today.”