Ontario records 344 new COVID-19 cases, 41 new deaths

Ford said they expect to find more positive cases of coronavirus as they ramp up their testing, but he said it will be “okay” because the more cases they find, the faster they can contain the spread of the virus. (File photo: engin akyurt/Unsplash)

Ontario has recorded additional cases of the novel coronavirus, at 344, on Friday, May 29. The latest figure takes Ontario’s total number of infections to 27,210.

The province also reported 41 new deaths related to the coronavirus, bringing the total death count to 2,230. Of the total death count, 1,412 or 63.3 percent of them were reportedly residents of long-term care facilities, while five of them were health care workers in long-term care homes.

Meanwhile, Ontario has now 20,983 or 77.1 percent resolved cases, after it reported 310 additional recoveries.

In his latest update on the Ontario’s response to COVID-19, Premier Doug Ford said there are 129 assessment centers open across the province and noted that 18,500 tests were completed yesterday.

“This is progress, and the team knows I expect them to keep the numbers up,” he said.

Ford said they expect to find more positive cases of coronavirus as they ramp up their testing, but he said it will be “okay” because the more cases they find, the faster they can contain the spread of the virus.

“We can’t manage what we cant measure. The more people we test, the more contacts we can trace,” he said, adding that they currently have “an army of 2,000 contract tracers in the field” who are following up on cases.

“Getting those testing numbers up is absolutely essential. The more data we have, the more we understand what is happening on the ground,” he stressed.

According to the Ontario government’s website, 680,687 tests for the virus have been completed, with 13,351 test samples are under investigation to date.