Ontario reports more than 600 new COVID-19 case for second straight day

TORONTO -

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

The province confirmed 678 new cases of the novel coronavirus on Thursday, which comes after officials reported 660 infections on Wednesday.

On Tuesday, officials logged 486 new cases of the disease, but before that, the province reported more than 600 cases daily for four days in a row.

Ontario’s rolling seven-day average now stands at 646, up from 498 at this point last week.

With 27,815 tests processed in the past 24 hours, the Ministry of Health says the positivity rate in the province stands at 2.8 per cent.

Of the new infections reported Thursday, 537 cases involved people who are either unvaccinated, partially vaccinated or their vaccination status remained unknown. The remaining 141 infections involved people who are fully vaccinated.

The province reported no new deaths due to the disease in the last 24 hours, and so the total death tally in the province remains at 9,472.

The province stated at least 302 people are in hospital due to COVID-19, including 31 people who are fully vaccinated and 271 people who are either not fully vaccinated or have an unknown vaccination status.

At least 165 of those patients are in intensive care in Ontario hospitals and 89 are breathing with the assistance of a ventilator.

The province deemed 513 more cases of the disease to be resolved as of Wednesday, bringing Ontario’s number of recovered patients up to 547,198.

Today’s report brings the total number of lab-confirmed cases in Ontario to 561,975, 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 144 new cases in Toronto, 102 new cases in Peel Region, 97 new cases in York Region and 51 new cases in Durham Region.

Officials also reported 78 new cases in Windsor-Essex, 48 new cases in Hamilton, and 20 new cases in Middlesex-London. All other regions reported fewer than 20 new cases of the disease.

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

Ontario’s Chief Medical Officer of Health Dr. Kieran Moore said on Tuesday that Ontario will likely experience waves of COVID-19 for the next six to eight months and it will only stop if the vaccination rate reaches at least 90 per cent.

MORE THAN 9.8M PEOPLE FULLY VACCINATED IN ONTARIO

The province reports that 9,844,659 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 38,932 doses of the vaccine were administered to Ontario residents.

Just over 20.6 million vaccine doses have been administered in the province since the rollout began last year.