Ontario confirms 111 new COVID-19 cases, just 6 reported in Toronto and 7 in Peel

Ontario reported an additional 111 cases of COVID-19 on Tuesday — with just six in Toronto — as the number of patients in hospital with confirmed cases fell below 100. 

Ottawa saw the most new cases with 25. Windsor-Essex reported another 22, while Niagara confirmed 13. 

Notably, Toronto and Peel, two areas that have consistently been in the top three public health units for new daily cases throughout the outbreak, reported just six and seven cases, respectively.

It's also important to note that the province's updates only capture data up to 4 p.m. the day before. Speaking to media yesterday, Toronto's medical officer of health Dr. Eileen de Villa said that the city has made "significant progress" in curbing the spread of COVID-19. 

Premier Doug Ford suggested over the weekend that both Toronto and Peel would learn on Wednesday whether they will be given a green light to move into Stage 3 of the province's reopening plan.

Today, 27 of Ontario's 34 public health units confirmed five or fewer new cases of the illness. Sixteen of those 27 saw no new infections at all.

The five-day rolling average of new daily cases in Ontario, a measure that smoothes peaks and valley in data, is on a downward trend once again after a brief uptick in the middle of July. 

There are currently about 1,575 active cases of COVID-19 provincewide.

Further, there are now 96 patients in Ontario hospitals with confirmed infections of the novel coronavirus, the fewest since the province started reporting hospitalization data in early April.

Thirty-one people are being treated in intensive care, and 18 are on ventilators — figures that have remained relatively stable over the last several weeks.

The number of COVID-19 test samples processed by Ontario's network of labs dropped considerably in today's update, to 17,334, the fewest in about two weeks.

The province announced Tuesday that another 320 long-term care beds will be added to the health care system by the end of 2021. 

The new beds will be built at Lakeridge Health's Ajax Pickering Hospital site.

Minister of Long-term Care Merrilee Fullerton told reporters at a news conference Tuesday that Durham region ranks among the lowest in Ontario in terms of the number of beds.

The announcement comes almost two weeks after Ford touted a "historic investment" of $1.75 billion to "kick start the development of long-term care beds" over the next five years. 

The provincial government says their plan will result in an estimated nearly "8,000 new long term care beds and 12,000 redeveloped long term care beds," Ford said.

He also noted that the province will have announcement on Wednesday in regards to Stage 3 reopening plans for Toronto, Peel and Windsor-Essex.

Meanwhile, a group says inconsistent funding for licensed child-care centres means facilities in some Ontario municipalities may not be able to reopen or expand capacity.

Andrea Hannen, executive director of the Association of Day Care Operators of Ontario, says at the local level are causing delays in daycare reopening in some areas.

She says Ontario is the only province that administers funding for child care through municipalities.

She says in some municipalities, daycare owners and operators haven't received funding or a firm commitment on how much they will receive, and thus can't afford the expense of reconfiguring their space and programming to fit public health guidelines and requirements.