COVID-19 case numbers in Ontario drop to 466, another 11 deaths reported

TORONTO -

Ontario is reporting 466 new cases of COVID-19 as officials log an additional 11 deaths linked to the disease.

Tuesday’s report brings the seven-day average for the number of infections in the province to 605, marking a significant drop from the 710 seen a week prior.

Of the cases reported today, 347 were found in individuals who are not fully vaccinated or have an unknown vaccination status and 119 were found in fully vaccinated individuals.

Right now, there are 315 people in hospital with COVID-19, including 278 patients who are not fully vaccinated or have an unknown vaccination status. At least 37 patients are fully vaccinated.

Moreover, there are 180 people in the ICU due to the novel coronavirus. Those patients include 172 who are not fully vaccinated or have an unknown vaccination status and eight who are fully vaccinated.

The province has recorded 585,007 lab-confirmed cases of COVID-19 throughout the course of the pandemic. That number includes 570,030 patients who have recovered and 9,715 deaths. At least 11 of those deaths were reported in the last 24 hours though nine occurred within the last month and two occurred more than a month ago.

With 23,785 tests performed since yesterday, the Ministry of Health says Ontario’s positivity rate stands at 2.1 per cent.

Where are the new COVID-19 cases?

Most of the infections reported by the province were found in Toronto (138), Peel Region (39), Ottawa (31), and Windsor-Essex (31).

Other areas that reported case numbers in the double digits Tuesday include Niagara Region (25), Hamilton (25), and York Region (21).

An additional 280 cases of COVID-19 were reported in schools across Ontario in the last 24 hours.

According to the government, 257 of those cases were found in students and 18 were found in staff members.

The five remaining cases were not identified.

Currently, 808 of the 4,844 schools in Ontario have a reported cases of the disease and one facility is closed as a result. 

Another 211 cases of Delta variant confirmed

Labs confirmed 211 additional cases of the COVID-19 Delta variant B.1.617.2 since yesterday.

Since the province began tracking known variants of concern in February, 18,508 cases of the Delta variant have been confirmed following genomic sequencing.

As well, one case of the Alpha variant B.1.1.7 was also recorded, pushing the case total to 146,461.

No new cases of the Beta variant B.1.351 or Gamma variant P.1 were added on Tuesday. 

Update on COVID-19 vaccinations

Ontario has been administering COVID-19 vaccinations for 10 months now and has seen more than 21 million needles go into arms across the province.

Some 31,000 doses were administered on Monday alone and 10,493,722 residents have both shots and are considered to be fully vaccinated.

Health Minister Christine Elliott said that works out to about 86 per cent of Ontarians over the age of 12 having received one dose and nearly 80.5 per cent having received two doses.