Muskoka man, 77, Ontario's first COVID-19-related death

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Ontario has recorded the first death of someone who had contracted the coronavirus, although it’s not clear the person actually died as a result of the virus.

The news comes as the number of new cases announced by the province dropped to just 12 on Tuesday. That number is much smaller than the increases seen over the last few days — 22 cases on Saturday, 39 on Sunday and 32 on Monday.

The 77-year-man from Muskoka, who was a close contact of an existing case and had underlying conditions, died on March 11 at the Royal Victoria Hospital in Barrie. His contraction of the COVID-19 virus was only discovered after his death.

The coroner is still investigating and has not said whether the senior’s death was the result of the virus or other medical issues.

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In total, five Canadians with the virus have died — the other four were all in British Columbia and related to a single long-term care facility.

The other eight new cases announced on Tuesday in Ontario include five in Hamilton, two in London-Middlesex and one in York Region. Only the case in York was identified — a male in his 60s who had travelled to Costa Rica. The rest were listed as “pending.”

Ontario’s senior public health officials said testing issues — not a drop in the COVID-19 infection rate — are responsible for the relatively small number of confirmed cases Tuesday.

“The number of cases in Ontario has risen rapidly,” Chief Medical Officer of Health Dr. David Williams told a briefing.

Swab kits are mostly manufactured in Northern Italy, epicentre for that country’s coronavirus outbreak, and Ontario has had some difficulty getting enough supplies for testing, Williams said.

Associate Medical Officer of Health Dr. Barbara Yaffe said 92% of Ontario’s cases so far are related to travel.

“Of those who travelled, the data shows at this point 29% of them travelled to the United States,” Yaffe said. “The most common states visited included New York, Colorado, California, Florida, Nevada and Massachusetts.”

Hundreds of thousands of snowbirds are expected back from the United States in the coming weeks and are being advised to self-isolate for 14 days, Williams said.

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Some local public health units have been unable to track down the source of confirmed COVID-19 cases and confirmed community transmission.

Random provincial testing of hospital and long-term care home respiratory cases has not revealed any community spread nor has there been a sharp increase in the number of patients in need of hospital acute care beds.

The province’s goal is to get out ahead of the coronavirus to ensure the number of cases don’t swamp health=care resources.

“We have to watch now,” Williams said.

— With files from Antonella Artuso