Ontario reports just over 500 new COVID-19 cases

TORONTO -

Ontario health officials are reporting just over 500 new COVID-19 cases, which comes after six straight days of case counts above the 650 mark.

The province confirmed 525 new cases of the novel coronavirus on Tuesday. This follows after officials reported 694 new cases on Monday, 740 new cases on Sunday and 835 new cases on Saturday.

Ontario’s rolling seven-day average now stands at 701, up from 600 at this point last week. The province’s seven-day average has been increasing for weeks now.

With 19,643 tests processed in the past 24 hours, the Ministry of Health says the positivity rate in the province is 3.1 per cent.

Of the new infections reported Tuesday, 434 cases involved people who are either unvaccinated, partially vaccinated or their vaccination status is unknown. The remaining 91 infections involved people who are fully vaccinated.

The province recorded five new deaths on Tuesday, keeping the total death tally in the province at 9,503.

Three of the deaths reported today occurred more than two months ago, the Ministry of Health said. The deaths are being reported as part of a data catch-up.

The province stated at least 336 people are in hospital due to COVID-19, including 33 people who are fully vaccinated and 303 people who are either not fully vaccinated or have an unknown vaccination status.

At least 158 of those patients are in intensive care in Ontario hospitals and 93 are breathing with the assistance of a ventilator.

The province deemed 680 more cases of the disease to be resolved as of Tuesday, bringing Ontario’s number of recovered patients up to 550,179.

Today’s report brings the total number of lab-confirmed cases in Ontario to 565,550, 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 120 new cases in Toronto, 60 new cases in Peel Region, 30 new cases in York Region and 19 new cases in Durham Region.

Officials also reported 60 new cases in Windsor-Essex, 42 new cases in Hamilton and 41 new cases in Niagara Region. All other regions reported fewer than 30 new cases of the disease.

Ontario is currently in Step 3 of its reopening plan. Health officials have said the province is putting the brakes on any further reopening ahead of a "difficult fall and winter" due to the Delta variant.

VARIANTS OF CONCERN IN ONTARIO UPDATE

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

The province confirmed 12 new cases of Alpha B.1.1.7 on Tuesday. The total case count for the strain now stands at 146,341.

Officials identified one more case of the Beta B.1.351 variant and so the total case count in the province stood at 1,501.

In addition, the province found no new cases of the Gamma P.1 variant, which keeps its total number of cases at 5,222.

As for the Delta variant, also known as the B.1.617 variant, officials reported 80 new cases of the strain, which brings the total number in the province to 9,779.

MORE THAN 9.9M PEOPLE FULLY VACCINATED IN ONTARIO

The province reports that 9,942,834 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 31,176 doses of the vaccine were administered to Ontario residents.

Just over 20.7 million vaccine doses have been administered in the province since the rollout began last year.