New COVID-19 cases in Ontario jump back above 200

TORONTO -

Ontario health officials are reporting more than 200 new cases of COVID-19 after three days of daily infection numbers below the 170 mark.

The province confirmed 213 new cases of the novel coronavirus on Thursday, which comes after officials reported 139 infections on Wednesday, 168 on Tuesday and 164 on Monday.

Before Monday, the province had reported case numbers above the 200 mark for four straight days.

Ontario’s rolling seven-day average now stands at 198, up from 165 at this point last week.

With 23,494 tests processed in the past 24 hours, the Ministry of Health says the positivity rate in the province stands at 1.2 per cent.

The province recorded 14 new deaths on Thursday, bringing the total death tally in the province to 9,374.

Twelve of the deaths reported today occurred between February and May 2021, the Ministry of Health said. They are being reported as part of a data catch-up.

There are at least 113 patients in intensive care in Ontario hospitals and 77 are breathing with the assistance of a ventilator.

The province deemed 183 more cases of the disease to be resolved as of Thursday, bringing Ontario’s number of recovered patients up to 540,258.

Today’s report brings the total number of lab-confirmed cases in Ontario to 551,338, including deaths and recoveries.

WHERE ARE THE COVID-19 CASES IN ONTARIO

In the Greater Toronto Area, officials reported 44 new cases in Toronto, 31 new cases in Peel Region, 18 new cases in York Region, 11 new cases in Halton Region and seven new cases in Durham Region.

Officials also reported 18 new cases in Hamilton, 17 new cases in Windsor, 14 new cases in Waterloo and 10 new cases each in Ottawa and London area. All other regions outside of the GTA reported fewer than 10 new cases of the disease.

Ontario is currently in Step 3 of its reopening plan. The province is operating under the loosest set of public health restrictions observed in months. In order to move to a complete reopening, the province has set certain vaccination targets.

VARIANTS OF CONCERN IN ONTARIO UPDATE

The province detected several more cases of variants of concern on Thursday. Officials are analyzing cases on an ongoing basis to detect mutations and variants of concerns.

The province confirmed an additional five new cases of Alpha B.1.1.7 on Thursday. The total case count for the strain now stands at 145,543.

Officials identified no new cases of the Beta B.1.351 variant and so the total case count in the province remains at 1,493.

In addition, the province also found four new cases of the Gamma P.1 variant, which brings its total number of cases to 5,168.

As for the Delta variant, also known as the B.1.617 variant, officials reported 185 new cases of the strain, which brings the total number in the province to 5,094.

MORE THAN 9.7M PEOPLE FULLY VACCINATED IN ONTARIO

The province reports that 9,189,535 people in Ontario have received both doses of a COVID-19 vaccine and are now considered fully vaccinated against the disease.

In the last 24-hour period, officials said 58,213 doses of the vaccine were administered to Ontario residents.

Just over 19.7 million vaccine doses have been administered in the province since the rollout began last year.