A 41-year-old man who died Tuesday of COVID-19 is one of the youngest victims of the virus that has killed at least 60 Ontarians, including six at three nursing homes, according to a tally compiled by the Star.

Nightclub owner John Tsai was admitted to St. Mary’s General Hospital in Kitchener on March 21, about 10 days after coming down with symptoms, family members said. He had type 2 diabetes as an underlying medical condition.

“This is a very sad time for us,” said Dr. Hsiu-Li Wang, acting medical officer of health for Waterloo Region.

Tsai was the region’s first death and appears to be the youngest coronavirus victim in the province.

A Star compilation based on press releases and online postings from the province’s 34 health units as of 5 p.m. Tuesday shows 2,433 confirmed and probable cases of the new coronavirus since it arrived from China in January.

That is higher than the province’s Ministry of Health tally of people confirmed positive for COVID-19 (no probable cases) of 1,966, which includes a rise of 15 per cent or 260 people and a total of 33 deaths based on public health reports filed by 4 p.m. Monday.

Provincial statistics and the Star’s tally do not include hundreds or thousands of people who have mild symptoms consistent with COVID-19 but have not been tested because of a shortage of materials as medical authorities put the testing focus on the most seriously ill, health-care workers, the elderly and First Nations.

By Tuesday morning, there were more than 7,700 cases of COVID-19 and 89 deaths across the country, Canada’s chief public health officer Theresa Tam told reporters in Ottawa.

But Tam warned that these figures don’t capture the full extent of the virus’s spread, because “there are many other people” under investigation, awaiting test results or who have not been tested.

As the federal government orders millions of new testing kits and provinces try to ramp up their capacity to confirm infections, Tam said it is “absolutely critical” to speed-up testing to get an accurate picture of the virus in Canada.

The Ontario Ministry of Health reported Tuesday that another 103 people have recovered, bringing that number to 534 or 27 per cent of cases. The testing backlog has fallen by about 1,300 cases, leaving 4,280 people awaiting results.

Ontario’s associate medical officer of health, Dr. Barbara Yaffe, said there were 291 confirmed cases of the new coronavirus in hospital, with 125 in intensive care units and 82 on ventilators to breathe.

Ontario still has 2,959 ICU beds available, chief medical officer Dr. David Williams told a daily briefing.

Loading... Loading... Loading... Loading... Loading... Loading...

On Tuesday, Toronto Public Health reported three new COVID-19 deaths in long-term care homes in Toronto. One was a confirmed case at Rekai Centre at Sherbourne Place. Two were presumed COVID-19 cases at Seven Oaks.

Three new deaths of residents at the Pinecrest Nursing Home in Bobcaygeon, the worst of the province’s 10 long-term care home outbreaks, brings the death toll there to 12 plus the wife of one resident. At least two dozen employees at Pinecrest have tested positive for COVID-19.

Ontario’s new cases include a teenage girl in Barrie, who contracted the virus from a close contact, and an LCBO worker at the St. Lawrence Market store in Toronto.

With COVID-19 spreading person-to-person, the Simcoe-Muskoka Health Unit said it is becoming more difficult for public health officials to monitor. Officials there advised residents to assume “that you and everyone around you may be carrying the virus.”

With files from Rob Ferguson , Ed Tubb and Alex Ballingall

Read more about: