This article is more than 5 years old and some information may not be up to date.
COVID-19 positivity rate varies across Canada
WATCH ABOVE: Since the start of the pandemic in Canada, 2.2 per cent of COVID-19 tests have come back positive, with rates varying from province to province. Mike Drolet looks at why those data differences are causing concern. – Oct 22, 2020
Friday’s case count is a slight decrease from Thursday which saw 841 new cases but an increase from Wednesday at 790. Active cases in Ontario now stand at 6,474.
According to Friday’sprovincial report, 292 new cases were recorded in Toronto, 186 in Peel Region, 87 in Ottawa, 72 in York Region, and 38 in Durham Region.
All other public health units in Ontario reported under 35 new cases.
The death toll in the province has risen to 3,080 as nine more deaths were reported. Wednesday and Thursday each reported nine deaths as well.
Story continues below advertisement
Ontario Health Minister Christine Elliott said more than 40,000 tests were processed in the last 24 hours. The government has said it hoped to increase testing capacity to 50,000 per day by mid-October.
Coronavirus: New recommendations aimed at saving lives in Ontario long-term care homes
The per cent positivity for processed tests and positive cases in Friday’s report was 2.1 per cent, down from yesterday at 2.2 and Wednesday at 2.4.
However, there is currently a backlog of 35,436 tests that need results. A total of 4,825,851 tests have been completed since the pandemic began.
Ontario is reporting 826 cases of#COVID19 as over 40,000 tests were completed. Locally, there are 292 new cases in Toronto, 186 in Peel, 87 in Ottawa and 72 in York Region. There are 733 more resolved cases.
The province notes that not all cases have a reported age or gender.
The province also notes that the number of cases publicly reported each day may not align with case counts reported by the local public health unit on a given day. Local public health units report when they were first notified of a case, which can be updated and changed as information becomes available.
Meanwhile, 58,799 Ontarians have recovered fromCOVID-19, the disease caused by the virus, which is 86 per cent of known cases. Resolved cases increased by 733 from the previous day.
Ontario has 276 people hospitalized due to COVID-19 (up by six from the previous day), with 78 patients in an intensive care unit (up by four) and 47 patients in ICUs on a ventilator (down by one). All hospitalizations have, overall, increased over the last several weeks.
Story continues below advertisement
The newly reported numbers for Friday’s report are valid as of 2 p.m. Thursday for Toronto, Ottawa and Middlesex-London public health units, and 4 p.m. Thursday for the rest of the province.
Ontario long-term care homes
According to the Ministry of Long-Term Care, there have been 1,913 deaths reported among residents and patients in long-term care homes across Ontario, which is an increase of three deaths since the previous day. Eight health-care workers and staff in long-term care homes have died.
There are 77 current outbreaks in homes, an decrease of three.
The ministry also indicated there are currently 229 active cases among long-term care residents and 237 active cases among staff — up by 23 and down by six cases respectively in the last day.
Ontario child care centres and schools
Meanwhile, government figures show there have been a total of 1,698 school-related COVID-19 cases in Ontario — 946 among students and 245 among staff (507 individuals were not identified). This is an increase of 72 more cases from the previous day.
In the last 14 days, the province indicates there are 440 cases reported among students and 95 cases among staff (261 individuals were not identified) — totaling 796 cases.
Story continues below advertisement
The COVID-19 cases are currently from 514 out of 4,828 schools in the province.
Five schools in Ontario are currently closed as a result of positive cases, the government indicated.
There have been a total of 357 confirmed cases within child care centres and homes — an increase of eight (four new child cases and four new staff cases). Out of 5,231 child care centres in Ontario, 133 currently have cases and 50 centres are closed.
Numbers for cases in schools and child care centres is updated weekdays only, at 10:30 a.m.
![](https://i1.wp.com/media.globalnews.ca/videostatic/news/uqi5ucdr72-n7s0tlczqf/WEB_VW25_ESPERANZA.jpg?h=article-hero-560-keepratio&w=article-hero-small-keepratio&crop=1&quality=70&strip=allloading="lazy"width="article-hero-small-keepratio")
![](https://i1.wp.com/media.globalnews.ca/videostatic/news/1z2qhfs351-ygym0r8jpr/2025_10_26_VARIETY_SUNDAY.png?h=article-hero-560-keepratio&w=article-hero-small-keepratio&crop=1&quality=70&strip=allloading="lazy"width="article-hero-small-keepratio")
![](https://i0.wp.com/media.globalnews.ca/videostatic/news/s5qhuv9hgn-vijflkla3i/2025_10_26_BETTER_NOT_BITTER.png?h=article-hero-560-keepratio&w=article-hero-small-keepratio&crop=1&quality=70&strip=allloading="lazy"width="article-hero-small-keepratio")
![](https://i0.wp.com/media.globalnews.ca/videostatic/news/8h2p18z7tn-ik6rqjr93x/doc_3.jpg?h=article-hero-560-keepratio&w=article-hero-small-keepratio&crop=1&quality=70&strip=allloading="lazy"width="article-hero-small-keepratio")
![](https://globalnews.ca/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/5d1badb5d450eb69fa2810212063fd9642420a44c595af617be56cbce4ef480f.jpg?quality=65&strip=all&w=336&h=224&crop=1loading="lazy")
![](https://globalnews.ca/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/mark-carney-asean.jpg?quality=65&strip=all&w=336&h=224&crop=1loading="lazy")
![](https://globalnews.ca/wp-content/uploads/2025/03/9feaa7ea3163f7c153ba3155571c7e956c218f11688a635d33bfd5b51171f7c9.jpg?quality=65&strip=all&w=720loading="lazy")
![](https://globalnews.ca/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/mark-carney-asean.jpg?quality=65&strip=all&w=720loading="lazy")
![](https://globalnews.ca/wp-content/themes/shaw-globalnews/assets/dist/images/placeholder.pngloading="lazy")
![](https://globalnews.ca/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/5d1badb5d450eb69fa2810212063fd9642420a44c595af617be56cbce4ef480f.jpg?quality=65&strip=all&w=720loading="lazy")
![](https://globalnews.ca/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/ce68727ae7cb4d55f06634f0f5c05958fd547afdcb1101c90411c3dbc24d3c95_41c14b.jpg?quality=65&strip=all&w=720loading="lazy")
![](https://globalnews.ca/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/grey-wolves-Colorado.jpg?quality=65&strip=all&w=720loading="lazy")
![](https://globalnews.ca/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/hurricane-melissa.jpg?quality=65&strip=all&w=720loading="lazy")
![](https://i0.wp.com/media.globalnews.ca/videostatic/news/p1t2o20czc-20e46yppwa/LOUVRE_SITE.jpg?h=article-hero-560-keepratio&w=article-hero-small-keepratio&crop=1&quality=70&strip=allloading="lazy"width="article-hero-small-keepratio")
![](https://i1.wp.com/media.globalnews.ca/videostatic/news/1sq4wke26e-pwdt7do05c/BUSINESS_MATTERS_JULY_30TH_ONLINE_STILL.jpg?h=article-hero-560-keepratio&w=article-hero-small-keepratio&crop=1&quality=70&strip=allloading="lazy"width="article-hero-small-keepratio")
![](https://i0.wp.com/media.globalnews.ca/videostatic/news/d027ggfedj-ybhoifvu6c/LOUVRE_SITE.jpg?h=article-hero-560-keepratio&w=article-hero-small-keepratio&crop=1&quality=70&strip=allloading="lazy"width="article-hero-small-keepratio")
![](https://i0.wp.com/media.globalnews.ca/videostatic/news/wagn9wfr6e-iq4dyncbqm/ONLINE_STILL_jays.jpg?h=article-hero-560-keepratio&w=article-hero-small-keepratio&crop=1&quality=70&strip=allloading="lazy"width="article-hero-small-keepratio")
![](https://i1.wp.com/media.globalnews.ca/videostatic/news/0yhlif3q77-nmzjzfc0f9/ONLINE_STILL_WORLD_SERIES_GAME_2_BLUE_JAYS.jpg?h=article-hero-560-keepratio&w=article-hero-small-keepratio&crop=1&quality=70&strip=allloading="lazy"width="article-hero-small-keepratio")
![](https://i1.wp.com/media.globalnews.ca/videostatic/news/ec3lgtvrgn-k7pimmg336/ONLINE_STILL_TRUMP_TARIFFS.jpg?h=article-hero-560-keepratio&w=article-hero-small-keepratio&crop=1&quality=70&strip=allloading="lazy"width="article-hero-small-keepratio")