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ONTARIO: Ford touts province's COVID-19 testing, with 14,555 reported today

In the past seven days, the province’s daily COVID-19 update has indicated there were four days where the province processed more than 16,000 tests
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Premier Doug Ford touted the province’s COVID-19 testing today, noting Ontario labs have expanded capacity to “exceed our target of 16,000 tests a day.” 

In the past seven days, the province’s daily COVID-19 update has indicated there were four days where the province processed more than 16,000 tests. 

The first day the number climbed over 13,000 tests in one day was April 30 when the province announced 19,228 tests had been processed in 24 hours. The number stayed above 16,000 for May 1 (16,532), May 2 (16,305), and May 3 (17,146). It dipped below the 16,000 goal today with 14,555 tests reported processed in the daily update. 

“This important milestone provides a strong foundation for gradually reopening our economy and getting people back to work, while protecting the health and safety of all Ontarians,” stated Premier Ford in a press release issued today. 

On April 28, the province also mandated all residents and staff at Ontario long-term care facilities be tested within the next two weeks. 

At the outset of the pandemic, the province was struggling to keep up with testing numbers, and results were taking, in some cases, nearly two weeks to come back. 

On March 31, for example, the province had completed a total of 51,629 tests and had a backlog of 4,280 tests. At that time, Public Health Ontario did not report how many tests were processed each day. 

By April 18, labs in Ontario were processing about 10,000 COVID-19 tests per day.

Today, the province has reported Ontario labs have processed 342,060 COVID-19 tests since the start of the pandemic, and notes there are 6,265 tests awaiting results. 

The province has also recently created an online portal for test results allowing those who have been tested to get their results without needing to be notified by a frontline worker.

 

 


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Erika Engel

About the Author: Erika Engel

Erika regularly covers all things news in Collingwood as a reporter and editor. She has 15 years of experience as a local journalist
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