Ontario reports 351 new COVID-19 cases, officials say test backlog is clearing

Published March 30, 2020 at 5:05 pm

fordcp

TORONTO — Ontario reported 351 new COVID-19 cases Monday, the largest single-day increase by far, which health officials attribute at least in part to clearing a backlog of pending test results.

Several days ago there were nearly 11,000 people waiting for their results, but that number started to come down as the province added more testing capacity.

The new total of cases in the province is 1,706 — including 431 resolved cases and 23 deaths.

The number of resolved cases had been stuck at eight for many days, but health officials had said to expect a large jump once the data caught up to a new definition for resolved.

The increase in the number of resolved cases also means there are actually fewer active COVID-19 cases in Ontario — 1,252 — than the 1,324 that Sunday’s data had indicated.

A new reporting format from the province also shows that more than 61 per cent of all cases are in the Greater Toronto Area.

Information on how people became infected is still pending for nearly half of all cases in Ontario. About 16 per cent are attributed to community spread, 26 per cent to recent travel, and nearly 10 per cent to close contact with another confirmed case.

About 10 per cent of people in the province who have tested positive for COVID-19 have been hospitalized.

The median age of people infected is 50, with cases ranging in age from under one year old to 100 years old.

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