BREAKING | Niagara Region Public Health confirm 471 new cases of COVID-19

A shocking update from Niagara Public Health as 471 new cases of COVID are reported today.

That's by far the highest single day case number reported, with cases usually in the 100 range.

10 new deaths have also been reported since Friday, bring our local death toll to 196.

There are now 1,438 active cases across the region with 50 outbreaks on the go.

To see the full data from the region, click here.

Here's how Niagara Health explains the large number:

Today’s case count reflects an additional 388 cases due to clearance of a large backlog. It is a one-time spike that ensures that the cumulative case count we are reporting now reflects the accurate total of cases that have been detected in Niagara.

Public health receives many test reports each day that are not new cases: e.g. duplicates receipt of the same test result, repeat test result in someone already reported as a case, test results for people who no longer live in Niagara.

Test results were being reviewed to assess if it is a new case or not. However, with the recent increase in cases and need to follow-up with all of them, we have struggled to also review the large number of daily new test results.

The small number of lab results not reviewed each day has progressively grown over the last couple of weeks, creating a large backlog.

We have now developed a computing automation that has reduced the work of reviewing new test results. This has also allowed us to clear this backlog.