Ontario's New COVID-19 Cases Are Back Over 200 For The First Time All Week But Just Barely

Canada's most populous province has finally seen a good streak come to an end. Ontario's new cases of COVID-19 numbered above 200 for the first time in a week. However, there are still reasons to feel optimistic.

According to information from the province, Friday saw 206 new cases of the virus, compared to 178 on the previous day.

This increase also ends a week-long streak where each day saw fewer than 200 new cases. It is the highest number of new cases since 266 were reported on June 13.

That brings Ontario's total cases to 33,301. A total of 28,468 of those cases have been resolved, with 218 being added to that total yesterday. There have also been 2,595 deaths.

That leaves the province's active case count at just 2,238. The majority of these are in Toronto.

Minister of Health Christine Elliott looked at the information as a net positive for the province.

"While this is the first time the province is reporting a daily new case count above 200 in six days, we shouldn’t draw too many conclusions from one day’s data," she wrote on Twitter.

"In fact, with 218 more resolved, we continue to see a persistent decline in active cases, with 12 fewer today and over 1,500 fewer active cases in the province as compared to early last week."

Friday saw 27,387 tests completed, bring the total number for Ontario to 1,151,319. Ther are still 16,963 tests under review.

The province has slowly been reopening in specific regions. While many areas of Ontario have moved into phase 2, Toronto, Peel, and Windsor-Essex will remain in phase 1 for at least another week, according to CTV News.

Mayor John Tory and Dr. Eileen De Villa noted that Toronto could move to stage 2 very soon after the city saw 14 consecutive days of declining cases.