As the Ontario government reported 2,759 new COVID-19 cases on Thursday, it also marked a pivotal new milestone in its 15-month pandemic fight: cumulatively more than half a million tests — 502,171 — have come back positive for the virus.
When COVID-19 was declared a global pandemic in March 2020, Ontario’s first 100,000 cumulative cases were recorded on Nov. 20, then 200,000 cases on Jan. 6, then 300,000 cases on Feb. 28, and 400,000 cases on April 15.
The last 100,000 cases to today’s date took just shy of one month (28 days) to reach as the province grappled with a third wave that saw record cases and hospitalizations.
However, Thursday’s case count is higher than Wednesday’s which saw 2,320 new infections. On Tuesday, 2,073 were recorded and 2,716 on Monday. It is also the fourth day in a row cases are below 3,000 as Ontario continues to see a downward trend with active cases and the seven-day average declining.
According to Thursday’s report, 774 cases were recorded in Toronto, 602 in Peel Region, 258 in York Region, 147 in Durham Region, 133 in Hamilton, 110 in Halton Region. and 105 in Ottawa.
All other local public health units reported fewer than 100 new cases in the provincial report.
The death toll in the province has risen to 8,405 as 31 more deaths were recorded.
