Ontario reports fewer than 700 new COVID-19 cases for fourth straight day

TORONTO -

Ontario health officials are reporting fewer than 700 new COVID-19 cases for the fourth day in a row.

The province confirmed 677 new cases of the novel coronavirus on Thursday, which comes just a day after officials marked the lowest case count seen in weeks with 463 new infections.

Officials reported 574 more infections on Tuesday and 610 more infections on Monday. This past weekend, the province logged 715 new infections on Sunday and 821 new infections on Saturday.

Ontario’s rolling seven-day average now stands at 665, down from 731 at this point last week.

With 37,630 tests processed in the past 24 hours, the Ministry of Health says the positivity rate in the province is 1.9 per cent.

Of the new infections reported Thursday, 529 cases involved people who are either unvaccinated, partially vaccinated or their vaccination status is unknown. The remaining 148 infections involved people who are fully vaccinated.

The province recorded seven new deaths on Thursday, bringing the total death tally in the province to 9,677.

Officials say that one of the seven deaths happened more than a month ago and they recently added it to the cumulative count due to a data cleaning.

The province stated at least 307 people are in hospital due to COVID-19, including 34 people who are fully vaccinated and 273 people who are either not fully vaccinated or have an unknown vaccination status.

At least 193 patients are in intensive care in Ontario hospitals and 134 are breathing with the assistance of a ventilator.

The province deemed 676 more cases of the disease to be resolved as of Thursday, bringing Ontario’s number of recovered patients up to 566,386.

Today’s report brings the total number of lab-confirmed cases in Ontario to 581,908, including deaths and recoveries.

WHERE ARE THE NEW COVID-19 CASES IN ONTARIO

Most of the new cases were found in parts of the Greater Toronto Area. Officials reported 136 new cases in Toronto, 76 new cases in Peel Region, 73 new cases in York Region and 39 new cases in Durham Region.

Officials also reported 29 new cases in Windsor-Essex, 38 new cases in Hamilton and 31 new cases in Middlesex-London. All other regions reported fewer than 30 new cases of the disease.

According to the province’s epidemiology report, of the 574 new infections reported on Thursday, 151 cases were identified in children under the age of 12.

The province also recorded 60 cases in youth between the ages of 12 and 19 and another 229 cases in people between the ages of 20 and 39.

As well, officials found 150 cases in people between the ages of 40 and 59, 67 cases in people between the ages of 60 and 79 and 17 cases in people over the age of 80.

On Thursday, officials reported 122 new cases in Ontario schools, including 106 cases involving students and 14 cases involving staff. The province said the remaining two cases were not identified.

The province reported that 702 out 4,844 schools have at least one case of COVID-19. Currently, no schools are closed due to an outbreak.

Officials also reported an additional 144 cases of the Delta variant in lab-confirmed COVID-19 tests. This brings the total number of cases to 17,738.

MORE THAN 10.3M PEOPLE FULLY VACCINATED IN ONTARIO

The province reports that 10,378,380 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 44,754 doses of the vaccine were administered to Ontario residents.

Just over 21.5 million vaccine doses have been administered in the province since the rollout began last year.

Ontario's vaccine certificate program came into effect yesterday. The new system requires patrons at dine-in restaurants, nightclubs, cinemas, gyms, sports facilities and other venues to present a receipt of full vaccination along with government identification before entering.