Ontario’s Ministry of Health website reported 25 more deaths in the past 24 hours, to go along with 408 new cases of COVID-19.
The recent update brings the province’s death toll to 119, and its total case count to 4,038. Ontario is also the first province to surpass 100 deaths related to COVID-19.
Details about the 25 new victims are unclear at this moment. The numbers reported by the ministry at 10:30 on Sunday are current as of 4:00 p.m. the evening before.
Following Saturday morning’s Ministry of Health update, two more residents at Pinecrest Nursing Home were reported to have passed away. An additional death was also reported Sunday morning. Twenty-four people have now died in connection to the centre, which includes the spouse of one of the 23 residents. In addition, at least 24 staff members at the Bobcaygeon, Ont. nursing home have been infected.
Two more people also passed away early Sunday morning in York Region, where 16 fatalities related to COVID-19 have been reported.
Among the province’s cases are 1,449 people who have recovered from the virus. There are 523 people in hospital, which includes 200 in intensive care, and 154 on ventilators.
Five inmates and one correctional officer at the Grand Valley Institution women’s prison in Kitchener, Ont. have also recently tested positive, leading to a lockdown of 40 inmates, according to the Union of Canadian Correctional Officers.
Various news organizations have reported discrepancies in the Ministry of Health’s numbers compared to the tallies of individual public health units, saying there are in fact more deaths and cases in Ontario than what’s being reported.
Associate chief medical officer Dr. Barbara Yaffe said earlier in the week that their stats are “an under representation” of the most current numbers, but it’s on individual public health units to update their latest stats to the province’s database before updating their own websites.
According to the Toronto Star, who have tallied all 34 regional public health units’ statistics, there are 4,722 cases of COVID-19 and 143 deaths in Ontario as of 5 p.m. on Sunday. Toronto leads the way with 1,438 cases — after recording 206 new patients on April 5 — which includes 27 deaths and 140 people in hospital.
As of the ministry’s last update, health officials in Ontario have tested 75,046 people for the virus, while only 981 people remain under investigation, a low over the past two weeks.
