Ontario has experienced its deadliest day since the COVID-19 outbreak began taking lives two weeks ago, as 10 new fatalities pushed the official tally to 33 on Monday.

“This is a very fluid situation,” Dr. Barbara Yaffe, Ontario’s associate medical officer of health, told a daily briefing Monday afternoon.

The new deaths were scattered throughout the province. At least nine deaths have been linked to an outbreak that first hit the Pinecrest Nursing Home in Bobcaygeon two weeks ago, infecting residents and staff.

Most of the victims across Ontario have been frail and elderly or, to a lesser extent, younger adults with underlying conditions.

That prompted Premier Doug Ford to urge people to stay home as much as possible and keep two metres away from others to slow the spread of COVID-19 and put an “iron ring” around the vulnerable.

“There continue to be outbreaks in long-term care facilities leading to devastating outcomes” said Dr. Theresa Tam, the federal chief public health officer, who reported a total of 6,671 cases and 66 deaths across the country to date.

“It is crucial to prevent the acceleration of spread in enclosed environments where persons with underlying medical conditions reside.”

With religious observances such as Easter, Passover and Ramadan approaching, Tam cautioned that such occasions will have to be marked differently this year.

“Now is the time when all assembly needs to happen virtually. Prepare ahead to connect through social media and over the phone and internet,” she said in Ottawa.

The number of Ontarians with confirmed cases of COVID-19 soared by 351 cases or almost 26 per cent Monday as the testing backlog shrank to about 5,600 people awaiting results — half the level of late last week, as more lab capacity comes on stream.

The provincial tally of residents with COVID-19 has now reached 1,706 since the first case was reported nine weeks ago.

As of Monday, there were 100 patients with confirmed cases in hospital intensive care units across the province, including 61 who were critically ill and required ventilators to help them breathe.

The total number of cases in Ontario continued to climb after Monday’s 3 p.m. briefing as many of the province’s 34 public health units updated their numbers online. Those cases that won’t appear on the official provincial tally until Tuesday at the earliest.

By 5 p.m., health units had posted a total of 1,955 confirmed or presumed cases of COVID-19 to date, with more deaths pushing the overall provincial tally to 39 — including a man in his 60s who died in a Stratford hospital, the first fatality in Huron-Perth.

There has been a major change in the number of coronavirus cases that have been cleared, which had been stuck at eight for days but has now increased to 431, fully 25 per cent of the provincial total.

New criteria for resolved cases include those no longer hospitalized or feeling well 14 days past the onset of symptoms. Previously, to be considered resolved, a case had to register two negative tests for the new coronavirus more than 24 hours apart.

That rule was relaxed because of a shortage of testing kits and laboratory processing capacity as health authorities made testing of serious cases, health care workers, seniors in nursing homes and First Nations a priority.

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Many people who suspect they have the symptoms of COVID-19 are now directed to stay home and self-isolate unless they develop a shortness of breath or other serious symptoms requiring escalated medical care.

That means there are likely hundreds more cases of the novel coronavirus in the province than the official statistics indicate.

Of the confirmed case tallies in Ontario, 42 or 2.5 per cent of the illnesses to date have been in those under age 19. Another 1,319 or 77.3 per cent of the cases are in the 20 to 64 age category, with 343 cases or 20.1 per cent for adults over 65.

While about seven per cent of cases nationally have been hospitalized, 9.9 per cent of Ontarians who have tested positive for COVID-19 have been admitted to hospital.

More than 61 per cent of the overall cases have been in the Greater Toronto Area.

The rising number of cases has made it difficult for local public health units to track how COVID-19 was contracted, leaving the cause a mystery in 48 per cent of the infections.