63 more people with COVID-19 died, Ministry of Health says
Health officials north of Toronto say they now believe 99 people who have COVID-19 there have a variant of the virus first detected in the U.K.
Almost all of those cases are tied to a devastating outbreak at the Roberta Place long-term care home in Barrie, Ont., but two cases have no link to the home, raising concerns the more contagious variant could be spreading in the community.
If confirmed by whole genome sequencing a process that is underway, according to the Simcoe Muskoka District Health Unit the new variant cases would mark a serious uptick in the number of such cases in Ontario. As of Monday, the province had only confirmed 34 cases of the mutated virus.
Earlier Tuesday, there was better news as Ontario reported 1,740 cases of COVID-19 the fewest on a single day since mid-December.