Ontario health officials report fewer than 1,000 new COVID-19 cases for fourth straight day
Ontario health officials are reporting fewer than 1,000 new cases of COVID-19 for the fourth day in a row as the positivity rate remains low.
The province confirmed 870 new cases of the novel coronavirus on Thursday, which comes after officials reported 916 new infections on Monday, 699 new infections on Tuesday and 733 new infections on Wednesday.
Tuesday’s daily case count was the lowest seen since Oct. 18, 2020 when officials reported 658 new cases of the disease.
Ontario’s rolling seven-day average now stands at 940, down from 1,441 at this point last week.
Ontario’s Chief Medical Officer of Health said Thursday that while the decline in hospitalizations and case counts are encouraging, trends show a steady climb in daily cases over the last three days, something he said could be attributed to the Victoria Day long weekend.
“I don’t want to take away from the fact we have seen excellent improvement in the last week, but this recent uptick is quite concerning,” Dr. David Williams said.
Williams added that he expects to see a higher case count on Friday.
"I hope we don't have a continual rise over the weekend," he said. "Getting over 1,000 again, that would be disappointing to say the least."
With 34,277 tests processed in the past 24 hours, the ministry of health says the positivity rate stood at 2.8 per cent on Thursday.
Officials also said that 10 more people have died due to COVID-19 in the previous 24-hour period, bringing the total number of fatalities to 8,801.
There are currently 729 people in hospital due to the disease. At least 546 of these patients are in intensive care and 317 are breathing with the assistance of a ventilator.
The province deemed 1,563 more cases of the disease to be resolved as of Thursday, bringing Ontario’s number of recovered patients up to 514,999.
Thursday’s report brings the total number of lab-confirmed cases in Ontario to 533,761, including deaths and recoveries.
WHERE ARE THE COVID-19 CASES IN ONTARIO
Most of the new cases reported are concentrated in hot spot regions in the Greater Toronto Area. Officials reported 225 new cases in Toronto, 167 new cases in Peel Region, 44 new cases in Durham Region and 28 new cases in York Region.
The province confirmed an additional 914 new cases of B.1.1.7 (U.K. variant) in Ontario on Thursday. The total case count for the strain now stands at 128,559.
Officials identified two new cases of B.1.351 (South African variant), bringing the total case count in the province to 954.
In addition, the province added 10 more cases of P.1 (Brazilian variant), which brings its total number of cases to 2,921.
Ontario does not currently report daily how many cases of the B.1.617 variant or so-called “delta” variant, originally found in India, are found in the province
Ontario's science advisory table estimates that nearly a quarter of all new COVID-19 cases in Ontario consist of the delta variant. Over the last seven days, that would translate into more than 200 cases of the variant each day.
Public Health Ontario has only been able to confirm 322 cases of the variant because it does not yet have a mass screening tool and relies on limited genomic sequencing.
On Wednesday, Peel Region's Medical Officer of Health Dr. Lawrence Loh told reporters that the Delta variant could become the dominant strain in his community in one month “with the rest of Ontario weeks behind.”
MORE THAN 834K PEOPLE FULLY VACCINATED IN ONTARIO
The province reports that 834,981 people in Ontario have received both doses of a COVID-19 vaccine and are now considered vaccinated against the disease.
In the last 24-hour period, officials said 150,884 doses of the vaccine were administered Ontario residents. Officials have repeatedly said they have the capacity to give about 150,000 vaccines a day.
Just over 9.4 million vaccine doses have been administered in the province since the rollout began earlier this year.
Background
The numbers used in this story are found in the Ontario Ministry of Health's COVID-19 Daily Epidemiologic Summary. The number of cases for any city or region may differ slightly from what is reported by the province, because local units report figures at different times
CTVNews.ca Top Stories
Solar storm puts on brilliant light show across the globe, but no serious problems reported
A powerful solar storm put on an amazing skyward light show across the globe overnight but has caused what appeared to be only minor disruptions to the electric power grid, communications and satellite positioning systems.
Potentially toxic chemicals hide in our drinking water and countless household objects, and they're not going anywhere
For decades, North Bay, Ontario's water supply has harboured chemicals associated with liver and developmental issues, cancer and complications with pregnancy. It's far from the only city with that problem.
Suspect sought after fatal slashing in downtown Toronto
Police are searching for a suspect in a homicide investigation after a man was slashed in downtown Toronto on Sunday.
'It was violent': Police tear down U of A pro-Palestinian encampment Saturday morning
Multiple people at the protest camp torn down at the University of Alberta campus Saturday say police's actions against protesters were "violent" and "disproportionate."
'My family doctor just fired me': Ontario patients frustrated with de-rostering
Dozens of Ontarians are expressing frustration in the province’s health-care system after their family doctors either dropped them as patients or threatened to after they sought urgent care elsewhere.
Canada Post cracks down on Nunavut loophole to get free Amazon Prime shipping
Amazon's paid subscription service provides free delivery for online shopping across Canada except for remote locations, the company said in an email. While customers in Iqaluit qualify for the offer, all other communities in Nunavut are excluded.
Nigeria's fashion and dancing styles in the spotlight as Harry, Meghan visit its largest city
Nigeria's fashion and traditional dances were at full display on Sunday as Prince Harry and Meghan arrived in its largest city, Lagos, as part of their three-day visit to the country to promote mental health for soldiers and empower young people.
Montreal man facing charges following contraband drone drop at Millhaven: OPP
The Ontario Provincial Police (OPP) says a 40-year-old man from Montreal is facing charges following a suspected drone drop of unauthorized items at the Millhaven Institution.
Blinken delivers some of the strongest U.S. public criticism of Israel's conduct of the war in Gaza
Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Sunday delivered some of the Biden administration's strongest public criticism yet of Israel's conduct of the war in Gaza, saying Israeli tactics have meant "a horrible loss of life of innocent civilians" but failed to neutralize Hamas leaders and fighters and could drive a lasting insurgency.