A man in his 40s who worked at a Real Canadian Superstore in Oshawa has become the youngest victim of COVID-19 in Ontario as the province’s death toll increased to 15 Thursday, health officials say.

That was a jump of six fatalities in a 24-hour period that saw another 170 cases of the new coronavirus confirmed, a sharp rise of 25 per cent to 858.

Across Canada, there were 3,579 cases and 35 deaths with dry cough, fever and chills being among the most-reported symptoms.

Ontario’s chief medical officer of health said he would not be surprised to see the number of new cases in this province start rising by 200 or more daily.

That’s because thousands and thousands of Ontarians who have returned from March break and other travel abroad may be “incubating” the virus circulating in global vacation spots and airports, Dr. David Williams said.

“We are in this upswing,” he told a regular daily briefing at Queen’s Park, urging people to stay at home if they can and stay at least two metres away from others when out and about.

The unidentified worker from the Gibb St. Superstore is one of two COVID-19 deaths below the age of 70 to date, said Williams. The other was a Halton Region man in his 50s region who had underlying health conditions.

Superstore management revealed Monday that the worker, who had no recent travel history, had tested positive but not been in the store for seven days.

The store moved to reassure concerned shoppers on its Facebook page, noting the premises were given a thorough cleaning and assured by Durham Region public health officials “the risk to our customers is very low.”

At least 12 of Ontario’s new cases have been admitted to hospital, including a woman in her 20s from Toronto who had close contact with a person who had tested positive, and a London-area man also in his 20s.

There are now an estimated 50 Ontarians in hospital with the virus, up from 20 last week at this time. Twenty-nine of the patients now hospitalized are in intensive care, with 20 on ventilators.

But plenty of capacity remains in Ontario hospitals, officials said. Still, Health Minister Christine Elliott defended moves by some hospitals to delay some cancer and other surgeries to reserve space for an expected wave of COVID-19 patients.

“I’m sure it’s distressing,” she said. “But we absolutely need to create capacity.”

In Ottawa, chief public health officer Dr. Theresa Tam said authorities are getting a better handle on the impacts of COVID-19 on the health-care system.

About six per cent of cases are being hospitalized, 2.6 per cent becoming critically ill and one per cent fatal.

“The fact that Canada’s fatality rate is at one per cent indicates that the health-care system is not currently overwhelmed,” she said.

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“But these fatalities could be further reduced by preventing the illness in our most vulnerable population,” she added.

“Many of the deaths in Canada have been linked to outbreaks in long-term care facilities.”

By Thursday, some 158,000 people had been tested, up 58,000 from Monday, Tam said.

With files from Bruce Campion-Smith

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