Ontario health officials have confirmed 86 new deaths in COVID-19 patients as of Thursday morning, marking the highest single-day increase in deaths thus far and bringing the province's total death toll to at least 1,082.

The new record is a grim one for the province, especially after the brief optimism felt by many yesterday after posting the lowest one-day increase in new cases in more than three weeks.

Ontario is now at 1082 deaths due to Covid-19.
Hard to see, but our seven week percentage increase in deaths actually nudged up slightly with todays data. pic.twitter.com/fxkBVYLeiV

— Jamie Mitchell (@realJ_Mitchell) April 30, 2020

Today's case increase is slightly higher than Wednesday, with 459 new cases confirmed. This is a 2.9 per cent increase from the previous report. 

There have now been 16,187 confirmed cases of COVID-19 in Ontario reported to date, though resolved cases (10,205) have significantly outnumbered active cases (4,900) for a while now. 

Testing in the province is on a very gradual incline, with 12,928 conducted yesterday. A total of 277,522 tests have now been administered in Ontario, though the backlog of tests under investigation also continues to grow. Yesterday, there were 9,530 cases under investigation for COVID-19 in Ontario, while today there are 11,859.

Many have criticized the province for falling well below its testing targets, as Premier Doug Ford had initially said we'd be seeing 18,900 tests per day by April 17. The government eventually revised that benchmark to 12,500 tests per day by April 22.

Meanwhile, according to the province's dedicated COVID-19 web portal, 999 people are currently hospitalized with the virus. Of that number, 233 are in ICU and 181 are on ventilators. 

#COVIDー19 in #Ontario by case status:

🟢Resolved: 10205
🔵Active (non-hospitalized): 3901
🔵Hospitalized non-ICU: 766
🔴ICU non-ventilated: 52
🔴ICU+ventilator: 181
⚫️Deceased: 1082
Total: 16187 cases#COVID19 #COVID19ON #covid19Canada #onhealth pic.twitter.com/OZMhQqKMoZ

— Dr. Jennifer Kwan (@jkwan_md) April 30, 2020

Ontario's daily Epidemiologic Summary indicates that of the province's 1,082 deaths, 530 have been reported among residents/patients in long-term care homes. There are now 190 outbreaks reported in long-term care homes, which is an increase of nine outbreaks from the previous report.

While Ontario has certainly seen some reasons for cautious optimism this week, today's substantial death toll and case increase is a reminder that we have a long way to go before the province reaches 200 new cases per day or less — the figure Chief Medical Officer of Health Dr. David Williams says he'd like to see for at least two weeks before the province reopens.