As the coronavirus infection count rises in Ontario, so too do the number of people dying as a result of the pandemic.

As of Thursday morning, Ontario Public Health is reporting 200 confirmed deaths due to COVID-19 — an increase of 26 over the day previous, bringing the province's mortality rate to roughly 3.5 per cent of all cases.

Another 483 new patients were confirmed to have been diagnosed with the deadly virus through Ontario's integrated Public Health Information System on April 8, according to the province's dedicated COVID-19 web page.

The total number of people who have been infected with the 2019 novel coronavirus in Ontario now stands at 5,759, representing an increase of 9.2 per cent overnight with 88,698 now tested across the province in total.

#COVID19 update for #Ontario : 483 new cases (5759 total), daily positivity % of 11.8 % or 6.5% on a cumulative basis. 4.1k tests. Testing remains very low.

26 new deaths, total of 200
632 hospitalizations (+4%)#COVID19Ontario pic.twitter.com/YvsMDqf72D

— SuiviCOVID (@suivicovid) April 9, 2020

Just over 2,300 confirmed cases of COVID-19 are now considered "resolved" by Ontario public health officials, though it's important to note that this designation applies to anyone who is 14 days past the onset of symptoms and no longer in medical care, regardless of whether or not they've tested negative for the virus.

This province's daily epidemiologic summary for April 8 states 52 per cent of all cases have been recorded in the Greater Toronto Area and that there have now been 69 outbreaks of COVID-19 in long-term care homes.

The City of Toronto, specifically, was reporting 1,570 cases of the coronavirus as of Wednesday afternoon with 49 deaths and 84 recoveries.

Nearly 20,000 cases of COVID-19 have now been diagnosed within Canada, and 1,353,361 have been confirmed globally with 79,235 deaths worldwide.

Status of #COVID19 in #Ontario [Apr 9 10:30am]: 5759 known cases* (483 new cases, 200 total deaths, 26 new deaths, 1208 results pending)#COVID19ontario #covid19Canada #COVIDー19 #onhealth #COVID19ON #onpoli #COVID_19 #StayAtHomeSaveLives
Data: https://t.co/wWVxY8xGns pic.twitter.com/CP0LOclEax

— Dr. Jennifer Kwan (@jkwan_md) April 9, 2020

Sadly, it doesn't look like cases will drop off anytime soon.

Public health officials believe that case totals will grow exponentially in the coming weeks across Ontario and continue to advise all residents to stay home whenever possible, wash their hands frequently and practice social distancing.

Predictive modelling projections released last week suggest that Ontario will see 80,000 cases of COVID-19 confirmed by the end of this month alone, with 1,600 fatalities. Even with full public health interventions, Ontario could see between 3,000 and 15,000 deaths by the end of the pandemic.

With Ontario Premier Doug Ford now pressuring health units to increase testing significantly province-wide, case numbers could start spiking as early as tomorrow.