Ontario health officials are confirming the province’s first death in a patient with COVID-19.

A spokesman for Health Minister Christine Elliott says the 77-year-old man in the Muskoka region was a close contact of another positive case.

Travis Kann says the man himself wasn’t a confirmed case before he died, rather he was under investigation for the virus.

COVID-19 was discovered after his death.

The investigation into the exact cause of death is ongoing.

The death pushes the COVID-19 death toll in Canada to five.

(The Canadian Press)