A grim milestone today as Ontario’s Chief Medical Officer confirms the first COVID-19 related death of a health care worker.
Dr. David Williams noted the province did 9,462 tests in the past 24 hours, an all-time high.
Dr. Williams said two more outbreaks were reported long term care homes, totaling to 108 Ontario facilities with COVID-19 infections.
In terms of deaths, the numbers are slightly varying due to different agencies reporting adjacent figures.
According to Dr. Williams, the epidemiological reports confirm 36 deaths province-wide, while long-term care homes’ administrative reports indicate 44 deaths related to COVID-19.
According to Toronto Public Health (TPH), as of noon April 17th, the city has a total of 3,145 cases. That number is not reflected in Ontario’s total because TPH switched to using a new system for reporting COVID-19 cases.
Ontario Ministry of Health reports Toronto has a total of 2,861 cases, 284 less that TPH reports. As per the MOH’s epidemiology report, COVID-19 data from TPH may be incomplete because of a technical glitch.
In response to a Vista Reporter’s question asking if that discrepancy would contribute to today’s new cases, Dr. Williams said because of system glitches there may be a delay in reporting Toronto’s total case numbers. Adding that delay will be addressed in tomorrow’s report.
And as the province passes its sixth 14-day period since COVID-19 struck, Dr. Williams says Ontarians are still making a difference.
He said the aim now is to decrease the amount of new community-based cases per day.
**Written by Mo Fahim
