Ontario reports 344 new cases of COVID-19

Ontario is reporting 344 new cases of COVID-19, an increase of 1.2 percent, bringing the total number of cases to 29,747, with more than 79 per cent of those resolved.

Currently there are 749 patients hospitalized with COVID-19, 118 of those are in ICU and 94 are on ventilators.

The province completed more than 20,700 tests with 12,247 currently under investigation.

The death toll in the province is up by 15, pushing the total to 2,372 – 64 per cent of which comes from residents in long-term care homes.

Meanwhile, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is to offer premiers billions in federal funding to help them safely re-open provincial and territorial economies without triggering an explosive second wave of COVID-19 cases.

Trudeau is expected to present the offer to premiers during their weekly conference call today.

It’s the twelfth such call since the pandemic sent the country into lockdown in mid-March.

Precise details, including how to allocate each province’s share of the cash, are to be negotiated in the coming days.

But federal officials hope agreements can be reached quickly to get the money flowing fast.