Ontario reports another 324 COVID-19 cases, most infections found in unvaccinated people

TORONTO -

Health officials logged 324 more infections of COVID-19 Wednesday and most of the infections were recorded in people without a vaccine.

According to data released by the Ministry of Health, 234 of the cases logged are in unvaccinated people. Thirty-two other cases were found in partially vaccinated people and 58 cases were logged in those who are fully vaccinated.

The province only began releasing the vaccination status of lab-confirmed COVID-19 cases on Tuesday after Ontario’s top doctor promised to do so last month.

Of the 108 people in hospital with the disease, six patients are fully vaccinated. The 102 other patients are either not fully vaccinated or have an unknown vaccination status, Health Minister Christine Elliott said in a tweet.

Seventy-nine of those patients are being treated in an intensive care unit but the province has not disclosed the vaccination status of those individuals.

Officials said Tuesday that the vaccination status information may not always match the daily COVID-19 case count because “records with a missing or invalid health card number cannot be linked.”

Wednesday’s report brings the total number of cases of the novel coronavirus reported in the province to 553,449.

With 24,772 swabs processed in the last 24 hours, the Ministry of Health says that Ontario’s COVID-19 positivity rate stands at 1.7 per cent.

Another three deaths related to the disease were also confirmed in the previous day, bringing the province’s death toll to 9,412.

At least 541,426 patients who previously tested positive for COVID-19 have recovered since the start of the pandemic.

Where are the new COVID-19 cases?

Most of the cases reported by the province Wednesday were found in Toronto (72), Hamilton (41), York Region (31), and Peel Region (30).

Case counts in the double digits were also found in Waterloo (27), Windsor-Essex (22), Halton Region (17), Durham Region (14), and Ottawa (13).

Ontario is currently operating in Step 3 of the province’s reopening strategy.

All remaining public health restrictions are expected to lift once 80 per cent of eligible residents have one dose and 75 per cent have two doses, the government has said. As well, health officials have said they want to see all 34 public health units with at least 70 per cent of eligible residents fully vaccinated.

For context, Minister Elliott says that 81.1 per cent of Ontarians above the age of 12 have one dose and 72.2 per cent have two doses.

However, Dr. Peter Juni, the head of Ontario’s science advisory table, told CP24 Wednesday that he would not support the further easing of restrictions given the recent rise in case counts which he says is being driven by the Delta variant.

“Right now just looking at everything and talking to my colleagues we can’t see any further reopening considering that our effective reproduction number is at 1.5,” Juni said. “We need to be very careful that we don’t have further explosive growth.”

The seven-day average for the number of cases reported in Ontario is 332. Last week that number was 198. 

Labs confirm 325 additional cases of Delta variant

In the last 24 hours, labs confirmed 325 additional cases of the COVID-19 Delta variant B.1.617.2.

There have been 5,725 such cases confirmed in Ontario since the province began tracking the spread of coronavirus mutations in February.

Thirty-eight cases of the Alpha variant B.1.1.7 were also found, pushing the case total to 145,632.

Labs confirmed three cases of the Gamma variant P.1. The case total for the strain is 5,177.

No new cases of the Beta variant B.1.351 were recorded since yesterday. The case total remains at 5,177.

With files from CP24's Chris Fox