Ontario reports fewer than 200 new COVID-19 cases, no new deaths for first time since October

TORONTO -

Ontario health officials are reporting fewer than 200 new cases of COVID-19 and are recording no new deaths for the first time since October.

The province confirmed 194 new cases of the novel coronavirus on Wednesday, which comes after officials reported 164 on Tuesday and 170 on Monday.

Ontario’s rolling seven-day average now stands at 201, down from 268 at this point last week.

With 26,976 tests processed in the past 24 hours, the Ministry of Health says the positivity rate in the province stands at 0.9 per cent.

Ontario recorded no new deaths related to the disease, keeping the total death tally in the province at 9,224. Wednesday marked the first day without any recorded COVID-19 fatalities in the province since Oct. 14 2020.

There are currently 201 people in hospital due to the disease. At least 220 patients are in intensive care and 155 are breathing with the assistance of a ventilator. Today’s hospital patient total is lower than ICU admissions, which may be due to a delay in reporting.

The province deemed 236 more cases of the disease to be resolved as of Wednesday, bringing Ontario’s number of recovered patients up to 535,346.

Wednesday’s report brings the total number of lab-confirmed cases in Ontario to 546,411, including deaths and recoveries.

WHERE ARE THE COVID-19 CASES IN ONTARIO

In the Greater Toronto Area, officials reported 35 cases in Toronto, 26 new cases in Peel Region, six new cases in Durham Region and three new cases in York Region.

Officials also reported 42 new cases in Waterloo, 16 new cases in Hamilton and 11 new cases in Grey Bruce Health Unit. All other regions in Ontario reporter fewer than 10 new cases of the disease.

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

The province confirmed an additional 349 new cases of B.1.1.7 on Wednesday. The total case count for the strain now stands at 144,338.

Officials identified five new cases of B.1.351 and so the total case count in the province rose to 1,420.

In addition, the province added 18 more cases of P.1 which brings its total number of cases to 4,650.

As for the Delta variant, also known as the B.1.617 variant officials reported 173 new cases of the strain, which brings the total number in the province to 2,222.

MORE THAN 6M PEOPLE FULLY VACCINATED IN ONTARIO

The province reports that 6,069,647 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 204,594 doses of the vaccine were administered to Ontario residents.

Just over 16.1 million vaccine doses have been administered in the province since the rollout began last year.