Ontario reports nearly 2,300 new COVID-19 cases

December 15, 2020NOW Staff

A photo of people in masks in Kensington Market during the COVID-19 pandemic

Ontario reported 2,275 new cases of COVID-19 on December 15, marking the first time the daily count has crossed the 2,000 mark.

Though the province said the jump in new infections is partially due to a change in the way data is reported in two regions, Health Minister Christine Elliott said today’s count is nonetheless “disturbing.”

Elliott also said Public Health Ontario updated the time when two local public health units can submit data from 10:30 am to 1 pm, meaning more information could be collected.

The province said the change resulted in a “one-time increase in case counts” and new algorithms were added to identify duplicate counts.”

During a press conference at Queen’s Park, Elliott elaborated that data swap does not entirely account for today’s record increase.

“Those are still disturbing numbers,” she said. “We do know in some areas people are still not complying with the public health rules and information. It’s really important that people not get together in gatherings larger than their own household.”

She urged Ontarians to celebrate the holidays only with people in their own households.

The province’s previous record high increase was 1,983 cases last Thursday. The province confirmed 1,940 cases on Monday, 1,677 on Sunday and 1,873 cases on Saturday.

In addition to the record high increase in new infections, hospitalizations are also up. There are now 921 patients in hospital, an increase over 857 the previous day. Of those, 249 people are in intensive care and 156 are on ventilators.

There were also 20 more deaths in the past day, bringing the total number of dead to 3,992. One of today’s deaths was a long-term care home resident.

In the past week, 184 people have died in Ontario.

The GTA continues to lead in daily cases, but Windsor-Essex also reported a triple-digit increase on Tuesday.

“Locally, there are 711 new cases in Toronto, 586 in Peel, 185 in Windsor-Essex County and 154 in York Region. There are 1,810 more resolved cases,” Elliott said on Twitter.

Will lockdown be extended in Toronto and Peel?

Asked today whether lockdown measures will be extended or modified, Premier Doug Ford responded: “Everything is on the table.”

Elliott added that the continuing surge in COVID-19 cases is causing capacity issues in hospitals.

Government officials are in the midst of seeking advice from public health officials “to see what other solutions we might be able to bring forward to help us get those numbers down,” she said.

Medical labs in the province completed nearly 39,500 tests, pushing the positivity rate up to 5.4 per cent. Another 45,770 test specimens are waiting to be processed.

There are now 17,031 confirmed active cases of COVID-19 in Ontario.

To date, there have been 144,396 cases in the province since January. Of those, 123,373 are resolved.