Ontario reports 13,578 new COVID-19 cases as hospitalizations increase

Ontario health officials are reporting 13,578 new COVID-19 cases as the province plans to implement new restrictions to curb the spread of the disease and stop the increasing number of hospitalizations.

Monday’s case count comes after officials reported 16,714 new COVID-19 cases on Sunday and a record-breaking number of 18,445 new cases on Saturday.

Since Wednesday, the province has reported more than 10,000 cases each day.

Ontario's rolling seven-day average has risen to 14,074, up from 7,550 at this point last week.

Public Health Ontario has previously warned that case counts are an underestimate of the true number of infections in Ontario due to the issues with the availability of testing resources in the province.

Ontario announced sweeping new restrictions on Monday will see schools closed to in-person learning until at least Jan. 17, a ban on indoor dining, gyms shuttered and capacity limits put in place for retail.

The measures aim to blunt the latest COVID-19 wave in order to ease the pressure on hospitals. 

The province recorded six new deaths due to COVID-19 on Monday, bringing the total death tally in the province to 10,229.

Currently, 1,232 people are hospitalized with COVID-19 and there are 248 people in intensive care, Health Minister Christine Elliott said. She noted, however, that not all hospitals report their data on weekends so the number may be more.

On Sunday, the minister announced that 1,117 people were in hospital due to COVID-19 and 224 of those patients were in intensive care.

“Omicron isn't like the other variants. It's much much more transmissible. The math isn't on our side,” Ford told reporters on Monday. “Based on the current trends, our public health experts tell us we can see hundreds of thousands of cases every single day.”

"The evidence tells us that about one per cent of people who get Omicron will end up in the hospital … One per cent of hundreds of thousands is too many new patients for our hospitals to handle.”

Ontario also said it would pause all non-urgent surgeries starting Jan. 5 in order to prepare for a rapid increase of COVID-19 hospitalizations.

The province deemed 6,547 more cases of the disease to be resolved as of Monday, bringing Ontario's number of recovered patients up to 664,562.

Today's report brings the total number of lab-confirmed cases in Ontario to 805,098, including deaths and recoveries.

WHERE ARE THE NEW COVID-19 CASES IN ONTARIO

In the Greater Toronto Area, officials reported 3,006 new cases in Toronto, 1,433 new cases in Peel Region, 1,260 new cases in York Region, 714 new cases in Durham Region and 411 in Halton Region.

Officials reported 995 new cases in Ottawa, 641 new cases in Middlesex-London and 543 new cases in Windsor-Essex. All other regions reported fewer than 500 new cases on Monday.

According to the province’s epidemiology report, of the 13,578 new infections reported on Monday, 1,233 cases were identified in children under the age of 12.

The province also recorded 1,308 cases in youth between the ages of 12 and 19 and another cases 5,350 in people between the ages of 20 and 39.

As well, officials found 3,902 cases in people between the ages of 40 and 59, 1,441 cases in people between the ages of 60 and 79 and 347 cases in people over the age of 80.

The province reported 85 resident cases and 26 staff cases in long-term care settings across Ontario. It also noted that one of the six new deaths were long-term care residents.

Officials stated that at least 209 long-term care homes are currently dealing with an outbreak.