Ontario reports 169 new COVID-19 cases, highest daily case count since late July

Ontario reported an additional 169cases of COVID-19 on Saturday, itshighest daily case count since July 24.

The new cases mark10 daysof daily case counts in the triple digits, with Saturday's cases drivenby infections inthree public health units, namelyPeel Region, Torontoand Ottawa.The public health unitsreported46, 42and 30 additional cases, respectively, on Saturday.

A full 28 of the province's 31 other public health units confirmed five or fewer newCOVID-19 infections, and 19reported no new cases at all.

Ontario has now seen 43,003 cumulative confirmed cases of the virus since the outbreak began in late January. Of those, around 90.3per cent are considered resolved. Another 106were marked as resolved on Friday.

Ontario's official COVID-19 death toll sits at 2,811. But aCBC News count, based on data from public health units, puts the actualtoll at 2,851.

Newly confirmed infections primarily in Peel and Toronto have been driving an upward trend in the five-day rolling average of daily cases in the province, which has been rising since a low on August 9.

Meanwhile, the province'snetwork of labs processed more than 28,600 test samples for the novel coronaviruson Friday.

The number of patients in Ontario hospitals with confirmed infections dropped from 66 to 58.Of those, 14 are being treated in intensive care units, with eighton ventilators.

15 COVID-19 cases linked to 2 GTA church events

Meanwhile, public health units in Toronto and York regionsarewarning of a COVID-19 outbreak linked to two church events held in the Greater Toronto Area last month.

In a joint release issued on Friday evening, Toronto Public Health and York Region Public Health said the Miracle Arena for All Nations events took place on August 16 at the church's two locations 20 Milvan Dr. in Toronto and 10800 Weston Rd. in Vaughan.

So far, a total of 15 people from across the GTA have since tested positive for the virus and the public health units say all of these cases can be tracked back to the events.

The health units saidthey believe there werepeopleat the services who had the virus and were contagious.

Theysaid anyone who has attended these events should monitor themselves for COVID-19 symptoms until Sept.18.