Ontario reports fewer than 120 new COVID-19 cases, marks lowest daily case count since Sept. 1

TORONTO -

Ontario health officials are reporting just over 100 new cases of COVID-19, marking the lowest daily case count since early September.

The province confirmed 114 new cases of the novel coronavirus on Monday, which comes after officials reported 166 new infections on Sunday and 179 new infections on Saturday.

Ontario’s rolling seven-day average now stands at 172, down from 223 at this point last week.

The last time the province reported fewer than 120 new cases of the disease was on Sept. 1 when officials logged 112 new infections.

With 15,933 tests processed in the past 24 hours, the Ministry of Health says the positivity rate in the province remains at 0.9 per cent.

As the province recorded no new deaths related to the disease, the total death tally in the province stands at 9,251.

There at least 204 patients in intensive care in Ontario hospitals and 123 are breathing with the assistance of a ventilator.

The province deemed 96 more cases of the disease to be resolved as of Monday, bringing Ontario’s number of recovered patients up to 536,402.

Monday’s report brings the total number of lab-confirmed cases in Ontario to 547,263, including deaths and recoveries.

WHERE ARE THE COVID-19 CASES IN ONTARIO

In the Greater Toronto Area, officials reported 10 cases in Toronto, nine new cases in Peel Region, four new cases in York Region and Halton Region and no new cases in Durham Region.

Officials also reported 18 new cases in Grey Bruce Health Unit and 15 new cases in Waterloo. All other regions outside of the GTA reported fewer than 10 new cases of the disease.

The province announced on Friday that it would be moving to Step 3 of its reopening plan on July 16, nearly five days ahead of schedule, allowing indoor dining to resume and gyms to open for the first time in months.

VARIANTS OF CONCERN IN ONTARIO UPDATE

The province detected several more cases of variants of concern on Monday. Officials are analyzing cases on an ongoing basis to detect mutations and variants of concerns.

The province confirmed an additional 14 new cases of B.1.1.7 on Monday. The total case count for the strain now stands at 144,714.

Officials identified zero new cases of the B.1.351 variant and so the total case count in the province remained at 1,440.

In addition, the province also added no new cases of the P.1 variant, which keeps its total number of cases at 4,818.

As for the Delta variant, also known as the B.1.617 variant, officials reported four new cases of the strain, which brings the total number in the province to 2,711.

MORE THAN 6.9M PEOPLE FULLY VACCINATED IN ONTARIO

The province reports that 6,966,273 people in Ontario have received both doses of a COVID-19 vaccine and are now considered fully vaccinated against the disease.

In the last 24-hour period, officials said 121,653 doses of the vaccine were administered to Ontario residents.

Just over 17.1 million vaccine doses have been administered in the province since the rollout began last year.