Ontario reports more than 600 new COVID-19 cases for first time since early June

TORONTO -

Ontario health officials are reporting more than 600 new cases of COVID-19 for the first time since early June.

The province confirmed 650 new cases of the novel coronavirus on Friday. The last time officials reported a daily case number that high was on June 6 with 663 new infections.

Friday’s increase comes after the province logged 531 new cases on Thursday, 485 new cases on Wednesday, 348 new cases on Tuesday and 526 new cases on Monday.

Ontario’s rolling seven-day average now stands at 518, up from 399 at this point last week. The seven-day average has been climbing steadily for several weeks.

With 28,635 tests processed in the past 24 hours, the Ministry of Health says the positivity rate in the province stands at 2.4 per cent.

On Friday, 547 cases involved people who are either unvaccinated, partially vaccinated or their vaccination status remained unknown. The remaining 103 infections involved people who are fully vaccinated.

The province recorded two new deaths on Friday, bringing the total death tally in the province to 9,450.

The province stated at least 197 people are in hospital due to COVID-19, including 21 people who are fully vaccinated and 176 people that are either not fully vaccinated or have an unknown vaccination status.

At least 135 of the patients are in intensive care in Ontario hospitals and 77 are breathing with the assistance of a ventilator.

The province deemed 444 more cases of the disease to be resolved as of Friday, bringing Ontario’s number of recovered patients up to 544,204.

Today’s report brings the total number of lab-confirmed cases in Ontario to 558,101, including deaths and recoveries.

WHERE ARE THE COVID-19 CASES IN ONTARIO

In the Greater Toronto Area, officials reported 136 new cases in Toronto, 113 new cases in Peel Region, 63 new cases in York Region, 25 new cases Durham Region and 19 new cases in Halton Region.

Officials also reported 48 new cases in Windsor, 55 new cases in Hamilton, 39 new cases in Middlesex-London, 25 new cases in Waterloo, 22 new cases each in Ottawa and Niagara Region and 15 new cases in Simcoe Muskoka.

All other regions reported fewer than 10 new cases of the disease.

Ontario is currently in Step 3 of its reopening plan. On Tuesday, 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.

MORE THAN 9.7M PEOPLE FULLY VACCINATED IN ONTARIO

The province reports that 9,700,285 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 45,748 doses of the vaccine were administered to Ontario residents.

Just over 20.3 million vaccine doses have been administered in the province since the rollout began last year.