Ontario reports just under 600 new COVID-19 cases, seven-day average drops slightly

TORONTO -

Ontario health officials are reporting just under 600 new cases of COVID-19 for the second straight day.

The province confirmed 593 new cases of the novel coronavirus on Wednesday, which comes after officials logged 577 new cases on Tuesday and 600 new cases on Monday.

Ontario’s rolling seven-day average now stands at 722, down from 732 at this point last week.

With 33,220 tests processed in the past 24 hours, the Ministry of Health says the positivity rate in the province is 2.5 per cent.

Of the new infections reported Wednesday, 447 cases involved people who are either unvaccinated, partially vaccinated or their vaccination status is unknown. The remaining 146 infections involved people who are fully vaccinated.

The province recorded five new deaths on Wednesday, bringing the total death tally in the province to 9,629.

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

The province stated at least 346 people are in hospital due to COVID-19, including 35 people who are fully vaccinated and 311 people who are either not fully vaccinated or have an unknown vaccination status.

At least 188 patients are in intensive care in Ontario hospitals and 125 are breathing with the assistance of a ventilator.

The province deemed 755 more cases of the disease to be resolved as of Wednesday, bringing Ontario’s number of recovered patients up to 560,824.

Today’s report brings the total number of lab-confirmed cases in Ontario to 576,389, 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 141 new cases in Toronto, 61 new cases in Peel Region, 9 new cases in York Region and 17 new cases in Durham Region.

Officials also reported 46 new cases in Ottawa, 45 new cases in Windsor-Essex, 38 new cases in Hamilton and 34 new cases in Niagara Region. All other regions reported fewer than 30 new cases of the disease.

According to the province’s epidemiology report, of the 593 new infections reported on Wednesday, 95 cases were identified in children under the age of 12.

The province also recorded 54 cases in youth between the ages of 12 and 19 and another 253 cases in people between the ages of 20 and 39.

As well, officials found 132 cases in people between the ages of 40 and 59, 48 cases in people between the ages of 60 and 79 and 11 cases in people over the age of 80 were reported.

The province has started reporting the number of new daily COVID-19 cases in schools across Ontario.

On Wednesday, officials reported 168 new cases in schools, including 145 cases involving students and 15 cases involving staff. The province said the remaining eight cases were not identified.

The province reported that 299 out of 4,844 schools have at least one case of COVID-19. Currently, no schools are closed due to an outbreak, the province reports.

Officials also reported an additional 411 cases of the Delta variant in lab-confirmed COVID-19 tests. This brings the total number of cases to 15,689.

MORE THAN 10.2M PEOPLE FULLY VACCINATED IN ONTARIO

The province reports that 10,215,951 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 35,691 doses of the vaccine were administered to Ontario residents.

Just over 21.2 million vaccine doses have been administered in the province since the rollout began last year.