Anyone Who Suspects they COVID-19 Can Now be Tested in Ontario
- by Virginia Carter
- in World Media
- — May 25, 2020
The province says that 460 new COVID-19 cases have been confirmed in Ontario and that over 2,000 residents have died of the virus, with 1,300 deaths occurring in long-term care homes.
The province managed to complete 11,383 tests in the previous 24 hour period, which is still well below the province's capacity of 21,000 per day.
Ontario is reporting over 4oo new cases of COVID-19 for a third straight day.
An official contact tracing mobile app was also launched on Wednesday to help identify, trace, test and isolate any cases of COVID-19.
Premier Doug Ford has suggested that he will not "hesitate" to roll things back if cases continue to rise.
The rolling five day average of new cases sits at 423 which is up from last week's average of 349.
Testing numbers have consistently fallen behind the government's daily goal of 16,000, often coming in below 10,000 per day over the past week.
In a public address on Sunday morning, Ontario's premier spoke directly to people of the province, and urged them to consider taking a novel coronavirus test ASAP.
More details on a new testing plan are also expected next week, which could include "random testing" of asymptomatic people in high-risk settings, such as truckers, taxi drivers, and workers in automotive and food processing plants province-wide.
The number of people recovered remains at 1455, or 97 percent of all confirmed and probable cases.
The number of people hospitalized is 878 - of those, 148 are in the ICU and 104 of which are in ICU on a ventilator. There are now outbreaks in 32 long-term care homes, retirement residences, and hospitals, and 598 residents in these facilities have tested positive for the virus.
The Ministry of Long-Term Care reports 1,525 long-term care residents and six staff have died, and there are 1,948 active cases in residents and 1,392 active cases in staff. Among residents there are 2,148 infected (a decrease of 104), and 1,495 who have passed away (an increase of nine).
According to the website, 611,369 tests for the virus have been completed and 3,216 possible cases are under investigation.
