Ontario’s Ministry of Health website reported 27 new fatalities, bringing the province’s death toll to 94 and Canada’s to over 200. It also marks the most deaths reported by a provincial health unit in a 24-hour span.
Along with the fatalities, Ontario recorded 375 new cases of COVID-19, increasing their case count to 3,630. Among those diagnoses are 1,219 people who have recovered, which is up from the figure the day before by 196. There are also 506 people in hospital with the virus, including 196 who are in intensive care and 152 on ventilators.
As of April 4, 71,338 people have been tested, while 1,336 people are under investigation.
It’s unclear who the 27 new victims are, but it marks the first time that the Ministry of Health has reported double-digit fatalities for three consecutive days. The numbers that are reported each morning on the Ministry of Health’s website at 10:30 a.m. are current as of 4 p.m. the evening before.
Following Friday morning’s Ministry of Health update, four more deaths were reported at Pinecrest Nursing Home in Bobcaygeon, Ont.
Two men in their 70s, one from Brampton and the other from Mississauga, passed away in the Peel region, while one more death was reported in York Region. Toronto health officials announced two more deaths Friday afternoon, but it’s not clear if they’re part of the eight fatalities that were reported this week at a Scarborough long-term care home.
One more death was also reported overnight in the Haldimand-Norfolk health region.
Following Saturday morning’s Ministry of Health update, two more residents at Pinecrest Nursing Home were reported to have passed away. Twenty-three people have died in connection to the centre, which includes the spouse of one of the 22 residents who passed away due to COVID-19 complications.
Toronto health officials also said there are now 1,026 cases of COVID-19 in the city, while 27 per cent of them are linked to community transmission.
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 data base before updating their own websites.
According to the Toronto Star, as of 10:30 a.m. on Saturday there were 3,800 cases of COVID-19 in Ontario and 113 deaths.
