Ontario reports no new COVID-19 deaths for first time in months

Ontario health officials reported no new COVID-19 deaths on Monday for the first time in several months.

The last time the province reported zero new deaths was on Dec. 20.

A total of 12,256 have died due to the disease since the start of the pandemic. The province recently removed 489 deaths from the total count because the deaths, in fact, were not related to COVID-19.

For the second straight day, health officials did not report how many people are currently in Ontario hospitals with COVID-19. They did state, however, that 228 people are currently battling the disease in intensive care units across the province.

Officials said that 79 of the people in ICU are fully vaccinated, 46 are unvaccinated and six are partially vaccinated. The remaining 97 have an unknown vaccination status.

According to data released by the Ontario Science Table on Sunday, which takes into account population sizes, people who are fully vaccinated with at least two doses are 84.4 per cent less likely to end up in hospital and 90.2 per cent less likely to end up in ICU compared to people who are unvaccinated.

The province reported 1,116 new cases of COVID-19 on Monday, but health officials have warned that number is an underestimate due to testing limitations and backlogs.

With 7,565 tests processed in the past 24 hours, the Ministry of Health says the province's positivity rate is about 12.1 per cent.

In the Greater Toronto Area, officials reported 244 new cases in Toronto, 60 new cases in York Region, 43 new cases in Peel Region, 38 new cases in Durham Region and 36 new cases in Halton Region.

Officials also reported 58 new cases in Middlesex-London, 56 new cases in Waterloo region, 54 new cases in Ottawa and 51 new cases in Niagara Region. All other regions reported fewer than 50 new cases on Monday.

The province deemed 1,333 more cases of the disease to be resolved as of Thursday, bringing Ontario's number of recovered patients up to 1,098,189.

Today's report brings the total number of lab-confirmed cases in Ontario to 1,126,456.

The province reported 10 resident cases and two staff cases in long-term care settings across Ontario. Officials said that at least 50 long-term care homes are currently dealing with an outbreak.