Public Health Ontario has reported 2,408 new cases of COVID-19 today (Dec. 23), which is up from 2,202 new cases reported yesterday.
The province reported 41 deaths in its latest update, 16 of whom were residents of long-term care homes. Three of the deaths reported today were individuals between 40 and 59 years old, 11 were between 60 and 79 years old, and 27 were over the age of 80.
Since yesterday's report, 92 people have been hospitalized with COVID-19 and 13 COVID patients have been admitted to intensive care units.
The latest update provided by the province's public health agency also reported the following:
- 2,243 new recoveries
- 1,002 people are currently hospitalized with COVID-19 in Ontario, down from 1,005 yesterday
- There are 275 COVID patients in intensive care units (up from 273 yesterday) and 186 COVID patients on ventilators (up from 172 yesterday)
- Of the 2,408 cases reported today, 448 are from Peel, 629 are from Toronto, 190 are from York Region, 234 are from Windsor-Essex, and 46 are from Simcoe-Muskoka
- 19,424 current active cases in Ontario, which is up from 19,300 yesterday
- Provincial public health labs have processed 56,660 tests since yesterday's report, which resulted in a 4.8 per cent positivity rate. The province's goal is to keep the per cent positivity rate below three per cent.
- Ontario's public health labs have processed more than 7.5 million COVID-19 tests since the start of the pandemic
- There is a backlog of 66,976 tests awaiting processing
Public Health Ontario has confirmed 162,663 cases of COVID-19 since the start of the pandemic, and reported 139,010 recoveries and 4,229 deaths.
The cumulative average incidence rate in the province is 1,094.3 cases per 100,000 people in Ontario. The weekly incidence rate in Ontario is 105.5 cases per 100,000 people from Dec. 13 to Dec. 19, which is up by 17.2 per cent compared to Dec. 6-12 when the average weekly incidence rate was 90 cases per 100,000 people.
Yesterday, the Simcoe Muskoka District Health Unit reported 44 new cases of COVID-19 in the region.
The local health unit has now confirmed 3,116 cases of COVID-19 with 2,418 of those cases recovered and 60 cases ending in death. There are active, 623 lab-confirmed cases of COVID-19 in the region, with the majority of those in Simcoe County.
There are at least 17 people from Simcoe County hospitalized. Dr. Charles Gardner, medical officer of health for Simcoe-Muskoka said the ages of those hospitalized range from under 10 years old to in their 90s. There are seven people in intensive care units.
The average weekly incidence rate for Simcoe-Muskoka region is 57.9 cases per 100,000 people, which is up from 53.2 a week ago.
For the latest breakdown of cases in the Simcoe-Muskoka District Health Unit, click here.
The Ontario government is implementing a province-wide shutdown effective Dec. 26 at 12:01 a.m. Details on the shutdown are available on the province's website here.
