Ontario sees third day straight of less than 200 new coronavirus cases

The Ministry of Health confirmed 184 new cases on Monday, up by three from Sunday's recording of 181 new cases. The downward trend is likely to speed up the province's reopening.

Monday's new number of 184 is mostly made up of cases from Toronto, by about 56 percent, other new cases were mostly found in the Peel Region. The GTA (York, Durham, Halton) made up the rest, a total of 25 cases.

The new average of daily cases sits at 205, the lowest it has been since March 31, when the average new count of daily cases was 201.

“Everything is headed in the right direction,” said Dr. Issac Bogoch, an infectious disease expert. Dr. Bogoch believes it won't be much longer before Ontario can move into Stage 2 of its reopening plan. Toronto, Peel Region and Windsor-Essex have been held back from the rest of the province due to their higher case count but that may change with the latest downward trend.

“I do appreciate that they took a more cautious approach,” said Dr. Bogoch. “It might be another week or so but if things keep heading in the right direction I am sure it can be done safely later on this week or early next week.”

In addition to the positive decline in new cases, 218 recovered cases were added to the Ontario database on Monday, bringing the province's total number of active cases to 2,585.

There are now 1,245 less active cases in Ontario compared to this time last week, noted Health Minister Christine Elliot via her Twitter account, she added that of Ontario's 34 public health units, 14 reported zero new cases on Monday.

“We’re continuing to monitor case numbers in Toronto, Peel and Windsor as we assess when they might be ready to enter Stage 2,” said Elliot, noting that Ontario's positivity rate “continues to be at all-time lows.”

Hospitalizations from COVID-19 are also continuing to trend downwards for the past several weeks. There are currently 413 patients in Ontario hospitals receiving treatment for COVID-19, down from 419 the day before. Of the 413, only 98 of those patients are in Intensive Care Units. That number marks the first time the province has had less than 100 patients in ICU since March 29. The number of patients in ICU peaked on April 8, with 264 patients.

Ontario's latest public health database numbers show the following:

• There have now been 2,538 deaths in people who have contracted COVID-19.
• Of those deaths 1,632 have involved residents in long-term care homes.
• There have been 334 outbreaks at Ontario’s 626 long-term care homes. Of those outbreaks, 74 are still considered active.
• There have also been 87 outbreaks at Ontario hospitals but only two are still considered active.
• The total number of people to be hospitalized with COVID-19 now stands at 3,995, accounting for more than 12 per cent of all cases.