Ontario reports more than 500 new COVID-19 cases for fourth straight day

TORONTO -

Ontario health officials are reporting just over 500 new cases of COVID-19 for the fourth straight day.

Health officials confirmed 530 new cases of the novel coronavirus on Sunday after officials reported 590 on Thursday, 574 on Friday and 502 on Saturday.

Ontario’s rolling seven-day average now stands at 514, down from 791 at this point last week.

With 20,731 tests processed in the past 24 hours, the Ministry of Health says the positivity rate in the province rose from 2.1 on Saturday to 2.6 per cent on Sunday.

The province also reported that seven more people have died due to COVID-19 in the previous 24-hour period, bringing the total number of deaths to 8,957.

There are currently 373 people in hospital due to the disease, but the province has said that number may be an underestimate as not all hospitals reported their data this past weekend. At least 426 patients are in intensive care and 273 are breathing with the assistance of a ventilator.

The province deemed 763 more cases of the disease to be resolved as of Sunday, bringing Ontario’s number of recovered patients up to 525,125.

Sunday’s report brings the total number of lab-confirmed cases in Ontario to 539,683, including deaths and recoveries.

WHERE ARE THE COVID-19 CASES IN ONTARIO

Many of the new cases reported are concentrated in hot spot regions in the Greater Toronto Area. Officials reported 102 new cases in Toronto, 81 new cases in Peel Region, 21 new cases in Durham Region and 14 new cases in York Region.

The province confirmed an additional 785 new cases of B.1.1.7 (U.K. variant) in Ontario on Sunday. The total case count for the strain now stands at 139,482.

Officials identified three new cases of B.1.351 (South African variant), bringing the total case count in the province to 1,137.

In addition, the province added nine more cases of P.1 (Brazilian variant), which brings its total number of cases to 4,133.

Ontario does not currently report how many cases of the B.1.617 variant, originally found in India, are found in the province.

Ontario entered the first step of its reopening plan on Friday, allowing patios and some non-essential retail to open for the first time in months.

MORE THAN 1.7M PEOPLE FULLY VACCINATED IN ONTARIO

The province reports that 1,796,782 people in Ontario have received both doses of a COVID-19 vaccine and are now considered vaccinated against the disease.

In the last 24-hour period, officials said 186,415 doses of the vaccine were administered to Ontario residents.

Just over 11.2 million vaccine doses have been administered in the province since the rollout began earlier this year.