Ontario reports 378 new COVID-19 cases, five more deaths

TORONTO -

Ontario is reporting another 378 cases of COVID-19 on Wednesday as well as five more deaths linked to the disease.

This brings the seven-day rolling average for the number of cases reported throughout the province to 379, up slightly from the 366 logged this time last week.

In the last 24 hours, labs processed 32,950 tests for the novel coronavirus, which the Ministry of Health said produced a positivity rate of 1.4 per cent.

Of the cases reported today, 236 involve individuals who are not fully vaccinated or have an unknown vaccination status and 142 are in fully vaccinated individuals.

There are 237 people in hospitalized with COVID-19, including 174 patients who are not fully vaccinated or have an unknown vaccination status and 63 who are fully vaccinated.

In the ICU, there are 137 patients and 125 are not fully vaccinated or have an unknown vaccination status while the remaining 12 are fully vaccinated.

Ontario has seen 601,086 lab-confirmed cases of COVID-19 since the beginning of the pandemic, including 588,107 recoveries and 9,886 deaths—five of which were reported since yesterday but actually occurred in October.

Wednesday’s report comes hours before the province’s top doctor is expected to reveal details of the government’s plan to roll out COVID-19 vaccine booster shots more widely.

Where are the new COVID-19 cases?

Most of the cases reported by the province on Wednesday were found in Toronto (64), York Region (41), and Niagara Region (32).

Other areas with relatively high COVID-19 case counts reported by the province include Hamilton (23), Windsor-Essex (21), Ottawa (20), and Sudbury (17).

Eighty-nine additional cases have been reported in schools across Ontario, including 78 infections found in students, 10 in staff members, and one other unidentified case.

There are 4,844 schools in Ontario and 499 have at least one confirmed case of the novel coronavirus. Four schools are closed as a result.

At the same time, 28 additional cases of the COVID-19 Delta variant B.1.617.2 were also confirmed, pushing the case total to 21,232.

Update on COVID-19 vaccinations

According to Health Minister Christine Elliott, nearly 88.3 per cent of Ontarians above the age of 12 have received one dose of a COVID-19 vaccine and 84.7 per cent have two doses.

More than 22,550,000 needles have gone into arms throughout the province’s 11-month vaccination campaign.