Ontario reports another drop in COVID-19 cases but positivity rate remains high

TORONTO -- Ontario is reporting another single-day drop in the number of new COVID-19 cases but the province's test positivity rate remains high.

Health officials reported 3,265 new COVID-19 cases on Tuesday, marking the fourth consecutive day in which the daily reported number of infections have decreased.

There were 3,510 new cases reported on Monday, 3,947 cases on Sunday and 4,094 on Saturday.

With only 34,000 tests completed in the previous day, the province said the test positivity rate stands at 10.2 per cent.

The province also reported 29 additional COVID-19-related deaths in the previous 24-hour period. In total, the province has seen 7,935 deaths related to the COVID-19 since the start of the pandemic.

Ontario has reported 27,215 new COVID-19 cases over the past seven days, making the rolling average 3,887.

The province also deemed 3,908 more cases of the disease to be resolved as of Tuesday, bringing Ontario’s number of recovered patients up to 404,248.

The report brings the total number of lab-confirmed cases in Ontario to 452,126 including deaths and recoveries. 

As of Monday, there were 2,336 people hospitalized with COVID-19. Of those patients, 875 are being treated in intensive care units and 589 are breathing with the assistance of a ventilator.

Where are the COVID-19 cases in Ontario?

Most of the new cases reported on Tuesday are concentrated in hot spot regions in the Greater Toronto Area. Officials reported 1,044 new cases in Toronto, 673 in Peel Region and 452 in York Region.

Several other regions reported infection totals in the triple digits, including Durham, which reported 171 new cases, and Ottawa, which reported 150 new cases.

There were 119 new infections reported in Hamilton and 138 cases in Halton Region.

Meanwhile, Ontario confirmed an additional 2,937 cases of the B.1.1.7. COVID-19 variant on Tuesday, bringing the total number to 57,423.

Officials also recorded an additional 20 cases of the P.1. strain and 37 of the B.1.351 mutation. 

The report does not include any reference to the B.1.617 variant, originally found in India, despite Ontario confirming at least 36 cases of it in the province. It's not clear if more variant cases have been identified since then.

Vaccines in Ontario

The province reports that 362,563 people in Ontario have received both doses of the COVID-19 vaccine and are now considered immunized against the disease.

In the last 24-hour period, officials said that 94,819 doses of the vaccine were administered to residents in the province.

The province has repeatedly said it has the capacity to administer 150,000 doses per day. 

Since COVID-19 vacccines starting rolling out in Ontario, nearly 4.9 million people have recieved at least one dose.

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.