For the second straight day, Ontario health officials are reporting more than 400 cases of the novel coronavirus after a week of cases below that number.
Health officials confirmed an additional 446 cases on Tuesday, as well as 17 more deaths, including two people under the age of 39. The province had reported an additional 404 cases of the disease on Monday, which was the first time the tally had climbed past 400 after a week of case numbers in the 300s.
The new patients bring the total number of lab-confirmed cases of COVID-19 in the province to 28,709, including 2,293 deaths and 22,484 recoveries. Almost a quarter of the new cases relate to migrant workers who are working in Ontario farms and greenhouses. 85 Migrant farm workers in Haldimand Norfolk tested positive and another 20 migrant workers at a St Catharines greenhouse also tested
There are 171 outbreaks at long-term care homes across Ontario, as well as 86 outbreaks in retirement homes and 47 in hospitals. There are currently 801 patients in Ontario hospitals with COVID-19. Of those, 125 are in intensive care. The province is falling short of its 20,000 daily testing goal once again. On Tuesday, the province reported it has tested 15,244 people over the past 24 hours.
Meanwhile another 700 cases went unreported dues to a mix up between testing centres. The tests were conducted by the William Osler Health System, which has hospital sites in Etobicoke and Brampton, as well as a drive-through COVID-19 assessment centre. The test samples were processed by the laboratory at Mount Sinai Hospital in downtown Toronto. Staff at each hospital thought that notifying the public health units about the approximately 700 positive tests was the responsibility of the other hospital, according to a source informed about the mixup. The actual responsibility lay with William Osler, said provincial officials.
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