Public Health Ontario has reported 2,123 new cases of COVID-19 today (Dec. 21), which is down from 2,357 new cases reported yesterday.
The province reported 17 deaths in its latest update, all were residents at long-term care homes. Five of the deaths reported today were individuals between 60 and 79 years old, and 12 were over the age of 80.
Since yesterday's report, 62 people have been hospitalized with COVID-19 and eight COVID patients have been admitted to intensive care units.
The latest update provided by the province's public health agency also reported the following:
- 1,654 new recoveries
- 915 people are currently hospitalized with COVID-19 in Ontario, up from 875 yesterday, however, Public Health Ontario notes more than 10 per cent of the province's hospitals do not submit data to the daily bed census on weekends, so the numbers could increase once those hospitals report for tomorrow's update
- There are 265 COVID patients in intensive care units (up from 261 yesterday) and 152 COVID patients on ventilators (down from 156 yesterday)
- Of the 2,123 cases reported today, 480 are from Peel, 611 are from Toronto, 192 are from York Region, 138 are from Windsor-Essex, and 61 are from Simcoe-Muskoka
- 19,019 current active cases in Ontario, which is up from 18,567 yesterday
- Provincial public health labs have processed 54,505 tests since yesterday's report, which resulted in a 4.7 per cent positivity rate. The province's goal is to keep the per cent positivity rate below three per cent.
- Ontario's public health labs have processed more than 7.4 million COVID-19 tests since the start of the pandemic
- There is a backlog of 39,106 tests awaiting processing
Public Health Ontario has confirmed 158,053 cases of COVID-19 since the start of the pandemic, and reported 134,867 recoveries and 4,167 deaths.
The cumulative average incidence rate in the province is 1,063.3 cases per 100,000 people in Ontario. The weekly incidence rate in Ontario is 100.5 cases per 100,000 people from Dec. 11 to Dec. 17, which is up by 13 per cent compared to Dec. 5-11 when the incidence rate was 88.9 cases per 100,000 people.
On Friday, the Simcoe Muskoka District Health Unit reported 58 new cases of COVID-19 in the region.
The local health unit has now confirmed 2,898 cases of COVID-19 with 2,377 of those cases recovered and 58 cases ending in death. There are approximately 430 active, lab-confirmed cases of COVID-19 in the region, with the majority of those in Simcoe County.
There are at least 15 people from Simcoe County hospitalized.
There have been 2,771 cases confirmed in just Simcoe County, with 2,271 of those now recovered and 56 deaths.
The health unit does not provide local updates on the weekend and will report the latest cases in the region later this afternoon.
For the latest breakdown of cases in the Simcoe-Muskoka District Health Unit, click here.
