Data glitch leads to inaccurate numbers

A snafu with public health data collection led to Ontario reporting just 76 new cases of COVID-19 on Thursday.

Health Minister Christine Elliott said “an issue” with the province’s Integrated Public Health Information System meant updated numbers were not available from 11 of Ontario’s 34 public health units.

“The 11 units reported a total of eight cases yesterday and while not a direct proxy for today it’s an indication of how many cases may be under-reported,” Elliott said on Twitter.

The minister noted no new data was available from Algoma, Brant County, ChathamKent, Hamilton, Niagara Region, Peterborough, Simcoe Muskoka District, Southwestern, Sudbury, Timiskaming and Windsor-Essex. One death was reported. Queen’s Park says 2,793 people have died from the virus since the outbreak struck in March, but the Star has determined there have been at least 2,829 COVID-19 deaths in Ontario.

The difference of at least 36 deaths is because some were not included in official tallies early in the pandemic.

At the time, COVID-19 tests had not been conducted before those victims — mostly elderly residents of long-term-care homes — died.

Elliott said the province conducted 25,917 tests on Wednesday up from 25,642 tests on Tuesday. There were 35 patients in hospitals with coronavirus, 15 of whom were in intensive care. Of those, eight were on ventilators.

Queen’s Park says there have been 41,048 confirmed cases of COVID-19 in Ontario. But a Star count of regional public health units Thursday found 43,124 cases and another death in Peel Region.

There were 20 new cases in Toronto on Thursday, 18 in Peel, 12 in Ottawa and 10 in York Region.

Over the past week, there have been an average of 96 new cases a day across Ontario. At the peak of the pandemic in mid-April there were nearly 600 additional cases daily.