COVID-19 deaths in Ontario surpasses 5,000, hospitalizations continue to rise

Ontario has now surpassed 5,000 COVID-19 deaths in the province after 29 more have been confirmed on Monday, bringing the total to 5,012.

The province reported new 3,338 cases on Monday as well, including 931 new cases in Toronto, 531 in Peel, 241 in York Region, 168 in Niagara and 165 in Waterloo.

The seven-day average is currently at 3,555 on Monday. A week earlier, on Jan. 4, the seven-day average was 2,982.

There are currently 1,563 COVID-19 cases in Ontario hospitals, including 387 in ICUs.

The province completed 46,403 tests in the past 24 hours. The test positivity in the province is at 7.7 per cent and the effective reproduction number in Ontario, the average number of people each case transmits COVID-19 to, is now at 1.2.

There are currently 252 long-term care homes in Ontario with a COVID-19 outbreak, including 1,502 active resident cases in the province and 1,260 active staff cases.

This comes are Ontario Premier Doug Ford teased that the provincial government will release modelling data this week that will be a “wake up call” for people to see. There is also the potential that Ontario will implement a curfew, similar to what commenced in Quebec on Saturday.

Students across the province were initially set to return to school on Monday, but last week the Ontario government announced that elementary students in southern Ontario will not return to school for in-person learning until Jan. 25.

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