Ontario reported another 151 lab-confirmed COVID-19 cases this afternoon.
Information for all the new cases reported today is listed simply as pending. The total for the province has now tipped over 1,000 with 1,144 confirmed cases of the virus.
Midland has reported two confirmed cases overall, but neither resident was treated/assessed at Georgian Bay General Hospital.
"As of last night, we are not aware of other positive results," GBGH communications officer Jennifer Moore said Saturday. "Public health is the best source of info about positive cases."
The two confirmed Midland cases include a man in his 60s and a woman in her 70s, who are both self-isolating. Both cases are travel-related with the man recently returning from Austria and the woman from a cruise that left the Dominican Republic.
Moore said the assessment centre has so far seen a total of 59 area residents during its two days of operation (Wednesday and Friday). Of those, 37 were screened only with 22 swabbed for additional testing.
As of Friday, there were at least 35 lab-confirmed cases in Simcoe Muskoka region, but the Simcoe Muskoka District Health Unit has said it will not be updating the numbers over the weekend.
The province has reported there are 18 deaths, but two have not been lab confirmed.
Reports from various health units suggest the provincial death toll is 19.
There have been three deaths in Simcoe-Muskoka, two in York, four in Toronto, one in Halton region, one in Niagara region, three in Haliburton, Kawartha, Pine Ridge, one in Ottawa, one in Hamilton, and three in Durham region.
In a press conference Friday afternoon, Dr. Barbara Yaffe, the province’s associate chief medical officer of health, said 60 people with COVID-19 are currently hospitalized, while 43 of them are in intensive care and 32 are using ventilators.
This week marked the first time Ontario reported triple digit increases in COVID-19 confirmed cases with 100 on Wednesday, 170 on Thursday, and 135 yesterday.
On Friday, the province didn’t post a list of information for the new cases, and instead stated all information on the new cases was “pending.” Previously, the Ontario website reported information such as age, gender, travel or community transmission, health unit where the case was confirmed, and status of the patient.
This week, Canada surpassed 4,500 confirmed cases of the virus and there have been at least 53 people who have died in Canada after testing positive for COVID-19.
The death toll for COVID-19 has now passed that of SARS. In 2003, Canada reported 438 probable and suspect SARS cases and 44 deaths related to the virus. Those deaths occurred over six months.
The first death attributed to COVID-19 in Canada was reported on March 8, 2020.
-with files from Andrew Philips
