Ontario reported 805 new cases of COVID-19 on October 17, a big jump over the previous day. Ten more people have also died.
Health Minister Christine Elliott said medical labs completed more than 44,700 – closer to the province’s daily target of 50,000 daily tests than in recent days.
The testing backlog now stands at 33,630.
Four regions in the province continue to drive the case count, but Toronto had the most by far, with 374 new infections confirmed in the past 24 hours.
The province said Toronto’s large case count is due to an upload error that has since been corrected. As such, cases from Toronto Public Health that should have been reported yesterday are included in today’s count.
Peel Region followed with 107, York Region had 93 and Ottawa reported 70.
Premier Doug Ford said on Friday that York will roll back into a “modified” Stage 2 on Monday, as all public health indicators for that region – from testing positivity rates to hospitalizations – are going in the wrong direction.
Another 682 people have recovered.
The province recorded 712 cases on Friday, 783 on Thursday, 746 on Tuesday, 807 on Monday and 649 on Sunday.
Hospitalizations continue to rise. There are 278 people in hospital – an increase of 17 since yesterday – with 72 in intensive care and 42 on ventilators.
There are six new outbreaks in long-term care homes and two of today’s 10 deaths were long-term care residents. Active cases among long-term care residents jumped from 158 yesterday to 185 today.
There have been 63,713 known cases of the virus in Ontario to date. Of those, 54,686 are resolved and 3,041 people have died.
New COVID-19 cases in Ontario on October 17
The following regions reported five or more cases of COVID-19:
Toronto = 374
Peel Region = 107
York Region = 93
Ottawa = 70
Durham Region = 30
Halton Region = 25
Region of Waterloo = 19
City of Hamilton = 12
Wellington-Dufferin-Guelph = 10
Middlesex-London = 9
Eastern Ontario = 9
Brant County = 8
Niagara Region = 7
Simcoe Muskoka = 6
Windsor-Essex = 6
