Ontario is reporting 732 new cases of the novel coronavirus on Friday, a new record for the province, bringing the provincial total to 52,980.
The province is reporting its highest case count ever recorded (the previous was Monday’s at 700 new infections). However, Ontario Health Minister Christine said “due to a data review at Toronto Public Health, a number of cases and deaths that occurred in the spring or summer are being reported today.”
Ontario is also reporting two new recent deaths, however, due to “data remediation” 74 more deaths are also being added.
The death toll in the province now stands at 2,927.
“There were 74 deaths reported for cases that occurred in the spring or summer and are now being recorded as part of a data review and data cleaning initiative,” the report indicated.
According to Friday’s provincial report, 323 new cases were recorded in Toronto, 141 in Ottawa, 111 in Peel Region, 38 in York Region and 34 in Durham Region.
All other public health units in Ontario reported 15 or fewer cases.
The province processed nearly 40,100 tests in the last 24 hours.
A total of 4,003,204 tests have been completed since the pandemic began. There is currently a backlog of 90,513 tests that need results, the most Ontario has ever seen.
Around 1.8 per cent of processed tests were positive for coronavirus.
