A day after Costa Rica announces plans to re-open international air travel for tourists arriving from specific countries, including Canada, Ontario, a province in central Canada, records a surge in COVID-19 cases, reporting nearly double the number of new infections than the day before.
Health officials reported 195 new cases of COVID-19 on Friday, bringing the provincial total to 38,405 confirmed infections.
On Thursday, the province recorded 103 new cases of COVID-19, and 203 new infections on Wednesday, the highest number since last June.
There were three additional COVID-19-related deaths in the past 24 hour period, bringing the total number of fatalities in Ontario to 2,758.
There are now 141 patients in Ontario hospitals with COVID-19. Of those 141 patients, 31 are being treated in an intensive care unit, 20 of which are require use of ventilator.
The majority of total deaths to date have been reported in people over the age of 70.
Eleven patients who died were between the ages of 20 and 39, while 114 were between the ages of 40 and 59 and 739 were between the ages of 60 and 79.
Toronto, the largest city in the province, neighboring Peel Region where flights to Costa Rica would originate and Windsor-Essex have all been held back from advancing to Stage 3 of the province's reopening plan because of their rising case numbers.
More than 65 per cent of the new cases are in people under the age of 40.
Part of the increase can be attributed to the increase in testing. In the last 24 hours alone, just over 28,809 COVID-19 tests were conducted by officials.
Ontario health officials have conducted more than 1.9 million tests for the disease since the pandemic was declared.
