New COVID-19 cases in Ontario top 400 for the fourth time this week

For the fourth day this week, Ontario has seen more than 400 new COVID-19 cases a day. The new number of cases is 412.

While lower than yesterday's jump — which saw the biggest spike we've seen in two weeks with 441 new cases — today's number still marks a disconcerting uptick following a promising 10-day decrease. 

Just last Wednesday, Ontario reported the lowest number of new cases it had seen since March, with just 258 new cases. 

Status of #COVID19 in #Ontario [May 23 10:30am]: 25040 known cases* (412 new cases, 2048 total deaths, 27 new deaths)

See THREAD for more graphs📈⤵️#covid19Canada #COVIDー19 #onhealth #COVID_19 #covidontario #COVID19ontario #onpoli pic.twitter.com/UBx4aJFA5w

— Dr. Jennifer Kwan (@jkwan_md) May 23, 2020

But for reasons that are yet to be determined, this week saw an unexpected upward trend when new cases jumped from 340 to 427 overnight. The case number dropped on Wednesday to 390, but jumped again to 413 on Thursday. 

Since last night, 27 more people have died from the virus, bringing Ontario's total death count to 2,048, or 8.2 per cent of all COVID-19 cases so far. 

According to data compiled by Dr. Jennifer Kwan, the increase in daily cases might correspond with change in testing criteria, or even the delayed effects of Mother's Day gatherings. 

Just yesterday, Ontario Premier Doug Ford announced that he'd roll back on his reopening plan and send the province into lockdown again if numbers didn't go back down.