Ontario is reporting a record number of new cases of COVID-19 just as Toronto and Peel enter a lockdown to control the rapid spread of the virus.
The Ministry of Health says that there were 1,589 new instances of the disease caused by the novel coronavirus confirmed on Sunday, as we all as another 19 deaths.
It is a new record caseload for any single 24-hour period, just barely topping the previous high of 1,588 that was reported on Saturday. It also represent a more sizeable increase on the 1,487 new cases that were reported last Monday.
The seven-day average of new cases also increased again on Monday and now stands at 1,429. That, however, is still down from this point last week when it stood at 1,443.
The latest positive cases came on just 37,471 tests, repeating a trend that typically sees the province report fewer results at the beginning of the week due to a drop off in testing over the weekend.
The positivity percentage over the last 24 hours was 4.6 per cent. It is the highest that number has been since last Tuesday.
The vast majority of the new cases continue to be clustered in Peel (535 cases), Toronto (336 new cases) and York (205 new cases) with those three regions accounting for more than two-thirds of all new infections.
More to come…