The latest number of cases of COVID-19 reported by Peel Region’s health department on March 29 showed a total of 187 cases across the Region of Peel, with 60 confirmed in Brampton.

According to the most recent data, as of 10 a.m. on March 29, the number of confirmed cases has more than tripled in Canada’s ninth-largest city since March 24, when Brampton had only 19 confirmed cases.

Neighbouring Mississauga has 110 confirmed cases, with 11 reported in Caledon as of March 29. There are six other confirmed cases in Peel Region pending further details.

Bramptoninans can expect that number to grow in the coming days after the Ontario Ministry of Health (MOH) confirmed earlier this week that there is a four-day delay in testing results due to the sheer number of tests being administered and some tests for health-care workers and at-risk patients being prioritized.

“The high volume of COVID-19 tests being conducted at the Public Health Ontario (PHO) Laboratory is having an impact on our turnaround times. As a result of these very high volumes, turnaround times for COVID-19 test results (have) changed from a 24-hour turnaround to up to 4 days turnaround. Those most vulnerable, including inpatients and hospital staff, will be prioritized first,” said MOH media spokesperson David Jensen in an email on March 25.

“Since January, demand for testing for COVID-19 has been steadily and rapidly increasing, with the lab now testing approximately 1,800-2,000 samples per day,” he added.

However, the province said they are working on upping that number to 5,000 tests a day in partnership with local hospitals and other testing facilities, with some academic hospital laboratories already lending a helping hand.

“PHO is working in collaboration with hospital laboratory partners to increase testing capacity for Ontario’s health system as quickly as possible. At present, there are a number of academic hospital laboratories that are doing testing for COVID-19, and more hospitals will be coming online in the next week or two with the aim for the laboratories to collectively test approximately 5,000 samples per day. PHO is working with our partners in hospital laboratories to explore other technologies to increase our testing capacity even more,” said the MOH.

Mayor Patrick Brown said earlier this week the city may begin fining those not adhering to social distancing guidelines, as cases continue to multiply, after receiving a staff report at council's March 25 meeting.

“This is about saving lives. I hope I don’t need to start fining people. I hope residents will do the right thing on their own,” he said.