Ontario reports more than 190 new COVID-19 cases as seven-day average climbs slightly

TORONTO -

Ontario is reporting another jump in the number of new COVID-19 cases as health officials log just over 190 new infections and the seven-day average rises.

The province confirmed 192 new cases of the novel coronavirus on Friday, which comes after officials logged 185 new infections on Thursday.

Before that, the province reported case numbers below the 150 mark for three days.

Ontario’s rolling seven-day average now stands at 160, up from 151 at this point last week.

With 19,757 tests processed in the past 24 hours, the Ministry of Health says the positivity rate in the province stands at 0.9 per cent.

The province recorded one new death related to the disease, bringing the total death tally in the province to 9,308.

There are at least 136 patients in intensive care in Ontario hospitals and 84 are breathing with the assistance of a ventilator.

The province deemed 147 more cases of the disease to be resolved as of Friday, bringing Ontario’s number of recovered patients up to 538,271.

Friday’s report brings the total number of lab-confirmed cases in Ontario to 548,986, including deaths and recoveries.

WHERE ARE THE COVID-19 CASES IN ONTARIO

In the Greater Toronto Area, officials reported 43 cases in Toronto, 25 new cases in Peel Region, 18 new cases in York Region, 11 new cases in Durham Region and four new cases in Halton Region.

Officials also reported 18 new cases in Waterloo, 11 new cases in Hamilton and 10 new cases each in Simcoe Muskoka and Grey Bruce health units. All other regions outside of the GTA reported fewer than 10 new cases of the disease.

The province is currently in Step 3 of its reopening plan and it will remain in this stage for at least 21 days from July 16 before the vast majority of public health restrictions lift.

VARIANTS OF CONCERN IN ONTARIO UPDATE

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

The province confirmed an additional 127 new cases of B.1.1.7 on Friday. The total case count for the strain now stands at 145,148.

Officials identified six new cases of the B.1.351 variant and so the total case count in the province rose to 1,485.

In addition, the province also added 34 new cases of the P.1 variant, which brings its total number of cases to 5,130.

As for the Delta variant, also known as the B.1.617 variant, officials reported 131 new cases of the strain, which brings the total number in the province to 3,885.

MORE THAN 8.3M PEOPLE FULLY VACCINATED IN ONTARIO

The province reports that 8,375,133 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 120,231 doses of the vaccine were administered to Ontario residents.

Just over 18.7 million vaccine doses have been administered in the province since the rollout began last year.