Ontario reports a slight increase in COVID-19 cases amid data issues

Ontario reported 1,172 more COVID-19 cases on Wednesday, along with 67 more deaths, as an ongoing data reconciliation effort between Toronto and the provincial government clouds the accuracy of the data.

Elliott says there are 334 new cases in Peel, 124 in York Region, and 65 in Niagara.

Ontario reported 745 cases on Tuesday (completely excluding Toronto and several other public health units) as well as 1,969 cases on Monday and 1,848 on Sunday.

The process has presented "challenges", OPH said, and until the migration is complete, the agency will continue using its own system, which pulls daily data at 4 p.m. and reports the numbers around 12:30 p.m. the following day. Tuesday's numbers saw the province dip below 1,000 for the first time since November 5.

The province conducted 52,418 tests on Tuesday and administered an additional 3,716 vaccine doses.

Ottawa Public Health officials explained the discrepancy between the local and provincial databases and said to expect further fluctuations as the migration process continues.

Hospitalization rates remain high around the province, though there are signs those numbers are in a gradual decline.

Peel has already recorded the presence of the South African variant in one case, while at least three people here have contracted the United Kingdom version. The last time the seven-day average was lower was over two months ago on December 1.

There are now at least 16,811 active cases of novel coronavirus infection across the province, with 6,305 deaths and 248,981 recoveries since last January.

OPH is also reporting 94 more resolved cases.

There are 1,745 more resolved cases. We now have 1,192 COVID-19 patients in the hospital with 341 people in the ICU and 252 in the ICU on a ventilator.

Of those, 336 were in intensive care and 254 were breathing with the help of a ventilator.