Ontario reports fewer than 170 new COVID-19 cases, six new deaths

TORONTO -

Ontario health officials are reporting fewer than 170 new cases of COVID-19 and six more deaths due to the disease.

The province confirmed 166 new cases of the novel coronavirus on Sunday. Today’s total comes after officials reported 179 infections on Saturday, 183 infections on Friday and 210 infections on Thursday.

Ontario’s rolling seven-day average now stands at 180, down from 228 at this point last week.

With 19,651 tests processed in the past 24 hours, the Ministry of Health says the positivity rate in the province increased slightly from to 0.6 per cent on Saturday to 0.9 per cent on Sunday.

As the province recorded six new deaths related to the disease, the total death tally in the province rose to 9,251.

There at least 202 patients in intensive care in Ontario hospitals and 132 are breathing with the assistance of a ventilator.

The province deemed 278 more cases of the disease to be resolved as of Sunday, bringing Ontario’s number of recovered patients up to 536,306.

Sunday’s report brings the total number of lab-confirmed cases in Ontario to 547,149, including deaths and recoveries.

WHERE ARE THE COVID-19 CASES IN ONTARIO

In the Greater Toronto Area, officials reported 28 cases in Toronto, 18 new cases in Peel Region, eight new cases in York Region, four new cases in Halton Region and three new cases in Durham Region.

Officials also reported 28 new cases in Waterloo and 18 new cases in Grey Bruce Health Unit. 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 Sunday. Officials are analyzing cases on an ongoing basis to detect mutations and variants of concerns.

The province confirmed an additional 144 new cases of B.1.1.7 on Sunday. The total case count for the strain now stands at 144,700.

Officials identified one new cases of B.1.351 and so the total case count in the province rose to 1,440.

In addition, the province added 18 more cases of P.1 which brings its total number of cases to 4,818.

As for the Delta variant, also known as the B.1.617 variant officials reported 150 new cases of the strain, which brings the total number in the province to 2,707.

MORE THAN 6.8M PEOPLE FULLY VACCINATED IN ONTARIO

The province reports that 6,855,946 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 170,537 doses of the vaccine were administered to Ontario residents.

Just over 16.9 million vaccine doses have been administered in the province since the rollout began last year.