Ontario reports more than 3,000 COVID-19 cases, 8 deaths

Ontario is reporting 3,065 new COVID-19 cases on Tuesday, bringing the provincial total to 367,602.

Tuesday’s case count is higher than Monday’s which saw 2,938 new infections. On Sunday, 3,041 new cases were recorded and 3,009 on Saturday.

According to Tuesday’s provincial report, 955 cases were recorded in Toronto, 561 in Peel Region, 320 in York Region, 165 in Ottawa, 132 in Niagara Region, 128 in Hamilton, 119 in Halton Region and 101 in Durham Region.

All other local public health units reported fewer than 100 new cases in the provincial report.

The death toll in the province has risen to 7,458 as eight more deaths were recorded.

Meanwhile, 333,576 Ontario residents were reported to have recovered from COVID-19, which is about 91 per cent of known cases. Resolved cases increased by 1,976 from the previous day.

Active cases in Ontario now stand at 26,568 — up from the previous day when it was at 25,487, and up from March 30 when it was at 19,810. At the peak of the coronavirus surge in January, active cases hit above 30,000.

The seven-day average has now reached 2,862, up from yesterday at 2,758, and is up from last week at 2,207. A month ago, the seven-day average was around 1,100.

The government said 37,541 tests were processed in the last 24 hours. There is currently a backlog of 29,173 tests awaiting results. A total of 12,855,397 tests have been completed since the start of the pandemic.

Test positivity for Tuesday was 8.9 per cent — the highest since early January amid the second wave. That figure is up from Monday’s at 7.8 per cent, and is up from last week when it was 6.2 per cent.

Ontario reported 1,161 people are hospitalized with COVID-19 (up by 219 from the previous day) with 510 in intensive care units (up by 16) and 310 patients in ICUs on a ventilator (up by 17).

As of 8 p.m. on Monday, the provincial government reported administering 2,621,839 total COVID-19 vaccine doses, representing an increase of 76,199 in the last day. There are 323,148 people fully vaccinated with two doses.

Pfizer-BioNTech, Moderna, Oxford-AstraZeneca and Johnson and Johnson are the vaccines currently approved in Canada. The first three require two shots administered several weeks apart while the fourth requires only one.

Variants of concern in Ontario

Officials have listed breakdown data for the new VOCs (variants of concern) which consist of the B.1.1.7 (first detected in the United Kingdom), B.1.351 (first detected in South Africa), P.1 (first detected in Brazil), as well as mutations that have no determined lineage.

Of the variants detected so far in the province, the B.1.1.7 VOC is currently the dominating known strain at 2,165 variant cases, which is up by 30 since the previous day, 71 B.1.351 variant cases which is unchanged, and 106 P.1 variant cases which is up by three.

The total case count for a mutation that was detected but the lineage was not determined was 27,193, an increase of 1,068 cases in the last day.

Here is a breakdown of the total cases in Ontario by gender and age:

• 181,929 people are male — an increase of 1,548 cases.
• 183,528 people are female — an increase of 1,501 cases.
• 53,709 people are 19 and under — an increase of 603 cases.
• 134,709 people are 20 to 39 — an increase of 1,167 cases.
• 105,597 people are 40 to 59 — an increase of 884 cases.
• 51,710 people are 60 to 79 — an increase of 359 cases.
• 21,791 people are 80 and over — an increase of 51 cases.
• The province notes that not all cases have a reported age or gender.

Here is a breakdown of the total deaths related to COVID-19 by age:

• Deaths reported in ages 19 and under: 2
• Deaths reported in ages 20 to 39: 34
• Deaths reported in ages 40 to 59: 316
• Deaths reported in ages 60 to 79: 2,119
• Deaths reported in ages 80 and older: 4,986
• The province notes there may be a reporting delay for deaths and data corrections or updates can result in death records being removed.

Cases, deaths and outbreaks in Ontario long-term care homes

According to the Ministry of Long-Term Care, there have been 3,755 deaths reported among residents and patients in long-term care homes across Ontario which did not increase from yesterday. Eleven virus-related deaths in total have been reported among staff.

There are 52 current outbreaks in homes, which is an increase of two from the previous day.

The ministry also indicated there are currently 8 active cases among long-term care residents and 121 active cases among staff — up by two and up by five, respectively, in the last day.

Cases among students and staff at Ontario schools, child care centres

Meanwhile, government figures show there have been a total of 13,498 school-related COVID-19 cases in Ontario to date — 10,128 among students and 2,207 among staff (1,163 individuals were not identified). This is an increase of 236 more cases in the last three days — 207 student cases and 29 staff cases.

In the last 14 days, the province indicates there are 1,693 cases reported among students, 331 cases among staff and four individuals were not identified — totaling 2,028 cases.

The COVID-19 cases are currently from 1,062 out of 4,828 schools in the province which is 22 per cent of schools. Eighty-three schools in Ontario are currently closed as a result of positive cases, the government indicated.

There have been a total of 3,805 confirmed cases within child care centres and homes — an increase of 76 (54 new child cases and 22 staff cases). Out of 5,279 child care centres in Ontario, 353 currently have cases and 92 centres are closed.

Data for cases in schools and child care centres are updated weekdays only, at 10:30 a.m. On Tuesday’s, numbers are included from Friday afternoon to Monday afternoon.

View link »