Ontario surpasses 10,000 coronavirus cases, 500 deaths

TORONTO (680 NEWS) — Ontario has surpassed 10,000 cases of novel coronavirus with 485 new cases reported Saturday, a 5.1 per cent increase in total cases over Sunday.

The provincial total now stands at 10,010.

The number of deaths also surpassed 500, as 36 new deaths were reported to bring the total to 514.

Resolved cases jumped from 4,556 to 4,875.

The number of people hospitalized decreased Saturday by one to 828, while those in the ICU increased by five to 250. Three less patients are on ventilators at 197.

Almost 9,500 tests were completed in the last 24 hours as the backlog of cases under investigation swelled to 6,833.

A note on the Ontario coronavirus website stated data from Toronto’s Public Health may be incomplete due to technical issues.

Minister of Health Christine Elliott said Toronto’s data wasn’t able to be fed into the provincial data on Friday and added they hope to have the problem resolved very quickly.

The City of Toronto announced on Thursday they would be using a new data system to track their COVID-19 cases.

As of 4 p.m. Friday, Toronto has 3,145 confirmed and presumptive cases of COVID-19 and 154 deaths.

Province announces funding for new vaccine research

Premier Doug Ford said Saturday Ontario researchers have already made strides in vaccine research by isolating the virus and acquiring blood samples of people who have beat COVID-19, which are two initial steps in development.

He also touted Ontario’s history of medical achievements, including discovering insulin, as evidence that researchers in the province could develop a vaccine.

Ford said life won’t be able to return to normal until a vaccine is found.

“Until we find a vaccine, going back to normal means putting lives at risk,” said Ford during his daily press conference on Saturday.

“Letting our guard down means potentially exposing millions of people to the virus.”