

Chris Fox, CP24.com





Ontario has confirmed 408 new cases of COVID-19, bringing the total provincewide past 4,000.

The province has also confirmed an additional 25 deaths. The total number of fatalities attributed to the virus now stands at 119, which equates to a fatality rate of just under three per cent.

While the new caseload is up from the 375 reported on Saturday, it still marks a decrease from the record 462 cases that were confirmed on Friday.

Right now, there are a total of 523 people hospitalized with COVID-19 in the province, including 200 in intensive care units.

Those numbers are up slightly from Saturday when there were 506 people hospitalized, including 196 in intensive care units.

There are 44 COVID-19 outbreaks at long-term care facilities in the province, including one at Pinecrest Nursing Home in Bobcaygeon that has now killed 23 people.

Encouragingly, the testing backlog is now under 1,000 after nearing 11,000 less than two weeks ago.

Public health officials have previously said that the true test of how the province is doing will come when that backlog has been eliminated and the results being released more closely align with the day-to-day situation in Ontario.

“The cases that are currently being diagnosed are really historic cases,” Health Minister Christine Elliott said last week. “What is going to be most important is what we are going to see when the backlog is cleared. We will then be dealing with current information and that is going to tell us where we are in terms of flattening the curve.”

So far, more than 75,000 people have been tested for COVID-19 in Ontario.

Of those with confirmed cases, about 36 per cent of them (1,449 cases) are believed to have since recovered.

Greater Toronto Area public health units account for 51.2 per cent of all confirmed cases, a number that has been trending downwards in recent days.