Ontario reports most new COVID-19 cases in nearly 2 months, 5 more deaths
CBC
Ontario recorded 711 new cases of COVID-19 on Thursday — marking the first time a daily case count in the province has topped 700 in more than six weeks — as the government is slated to reveal details of its revised "enhanced testing plan."
Minister of Health Christine Elliott is scheduled to hold a 2 p.m. ET news conference in Toronto. According to her office, Elliott will be joined by Minister of Education Stephen Lecce and Dr. Kieran Moore, Ontario's chief medical officer of health.
You'll be able to watch that news conference live in this story.
Today's total of new cases is a roughly 11 per cent jump from the same time last week, when Ontario logged 642 infections. It is also the most new cases reported on a single day in Ontario since Sept. 24.
The seven-day average of daily cases climbed to 597.
While cases continue to rise in much of Ontario, the cumulative pace of those increases is slowing.
The province's COVID-19 Science Advisory Table estimates that as of Nov. 14, cases were doubling every 34 days, up from every 30 days on Nov. 13. Near the beginning of last week, the doubling time was estimated at about 24 days, and the week earlier, it was every 17 days or so.
The Ministry of Health also reported the deaths of five more people with COVID-19, raising the official toll to 9,955.
Here are some other key pandemic indicators and figures from the Ministry of Health's daily provincial update:
Patients in ICUs with COVID-related illnesses: 129, down from 132 last Thursday.
Tests in the previous 24 hours: 34,347, with a 2 per cent positivity rate.
Active cases: 4,872.
Vaccinations: 13,862 doses were administered by public health units on Wednesday. About 85.8 per cent of eligible Ontarians have had two shots.
Meanwhile, in a major move for families across the country, Health Canada will announce the approval of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine for children ages five to 11 on Friday, CBC News has confirmed.
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