TORONTO -- Ontario health officials are reporting fewer than 1,100 new COVID-19 cases, however the province’s positivity rate has jumped above four per cent for the first time this month.
On Tuesday, health officials reported 1,074 new cases of the novel coronavirus as well as 11 more deaths.
This is the 10th day in a row in which the daily case count in Ontario has been over 1,000.
There were 1,268 infections confirmed on Monday, 1,747 on Sunday and 1,468 on Saturday. The rolling seven-day average of daily case counts now stands at about 1,333.
The number of COVID-19 tests processed in the last 24 hours has dropped significantly. With just over 28,500 tests completed, the Ontario Ministry of Health reported the province’s positivity rate now stands at 4.5 per cent.
A day earlier, the ministry said the positivity rate was 3.8 per cent.
The number of COVID-19 related hospitalizations reported by the provincial government has also jumped from 699 to 761 in the last 24 hours. Of the 761 people being treated in Ontario hospitals, at least 292 are in the intensive care unit and 194 of those patients are breathing with the assistance of a ventilator.
On Monday, the Ontario Hospital Association said that the province is entering a third wave of the COVID-19 pandemic, citing an increase in variants and hospitalizations.
On Tuesday, the province said that another 501 variant mutations were found in lab-positive COVID-19 tests, bringing the total number of confirmed variants to 9,131.
Of those mutations, only 1,211 have completed genomic testing and have been officially categorized.
The majority have been found to be the B.1.1.7. strain originally found in the U.K (1,131). The province reported another 25 B.1.1.7. variants on Tuesday.
Forty-six of the variants are B.1.351 strain originally found in South Africa and 34 have been designated as P.1., originally found in Brazil.
Where are the new COVID-19 cases?
The majority of the 1,074 new COVID-19 cases logged on Tuesday are from three of Ontario’s biggest hot spots.
According to the province’s epidemiology report, 313 of the infections were in Toronto, 199 were in Peel Region and 101 were in York Region.
Only two other public health units had COVID-19 cases surpassing 50—Ottawa (66) and Hamilton (66).
The total number of lab-confirmed cases in Ontario now stands at 320,448, including 7,173 deaths and 300,769 recoveries.
COVID-19 vaccinations in Ontario
Just over 51,500 doses of the COVID-19 vaccine were administered in the last recorded 24-hour period.
According to the province, officials have administered a total of 1,243,123 doses of COVID-19 vaccine in Ontario. A little more than 288,900 people have received both doses of the vaccine and are considered are immunized.
Backstory:
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
