Ontario reports single-day drop in COVID-19 cases with just over 300 new infections

TORONTO -

Ontario health officials are reporting just over 300 new COVID-19 cases after five days of infection numbers above the 500 mark.

The province confirmed 348 new cases of the novel coronavirus on Tuesday, which comes after officials reported 526 new infections on Monday, 511 new infections on Sunday, 578 new infections on Saturday, 510 new infections on Friday and 513 new infections on Thursday.

Unvaccinated people continue to make up about 67 per cent of the total new cases detected, despite representing only 28.5 per cent of Ontario’s population. Partially vaccinated people made up 11 per cent of the case count, while fully vaccinated people made up 22 per cent of the case count.

Ontario’s rolling seven-day average now stands at 472, up from 306 at this point last week. The seven-day average has been climbing steadily for several days.

With 17,408 tests processed in the past 24 hours, the Ministry of Health says the positivity rate in the province stands at 2.6 per cent.

The province recorded 10 new deaths on Tuesday, bringing the total death tally in the province at 9,428.

Six of the deaths reported today occurred two months ago, the Ministry of Health said. The deaths are being reported as part of a data catch-up.

The province stated at least 163 people are in hospital due to COVID-19, including 14 people who are fully vaccinated and 149 people that are either not fully vaccinated or their vaccination status remains unknown.

At least 127 of the patients are in intensive care in Ontario hospitals and 57 are breathing with the assistance of a ventilator.

The province deemed 280 more cases of the disease to be resolved as of Tuesday, bringing Ontario’s number of recovered patients up to 543,077.

Today’s report brings the total number of lab-confirmed cases in Ontario to 556,435, including deaths and recoveries.

WHERE ARE THE COVID-19 CASES IN ONTARIO

In the Greater Toronto Area, officials reported 85 new cases in Toronto, 45 new cases in Peel Region, 32 new cases in York Region, 21 new cases in Halton Region and 19 new cases in Durham Region.

Officials also reported 41 new cases in Windsor, 34 new cases in Hamilton, 14 new cases in Simcoe Muskoka and Niagara, 12 new cases in Ottawa and 10 new cases in Waterloo.

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

Ontario is currently in Step 3 of its reopening plan. The province is operating under the loosest set of public health restrictions observed in months. In order to move to a complete reopening, the province has set certain vaccination targets.

VARIANTS OF CONCERN IN ONTARIO UPDATE

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

The province confirmed an additional two new cases of Alpha B.1.1.7 on Tuesday. The total case count for the strain now stands at 145,694.

Officials identified no new cases of the Beta B.1.351 variant and so the total case count in the province remains at 1,493.

In addition, the province also found five new cases of the Gamma P.1 variant, which brings its total number of cases to 5,183.

As for the Delta variant, also known as the B.1.617 variant, officials reported 294 new cases of the strain, which brings the total number in the province to 6,539.

MORE THAN 9.6M PEOPLE FULLY VACCINATED IN ONTARIO

The province reports that 9,612,865 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 40,626 doses of the vaccine were administered to Ontario residents.

Just over 20.2 million vaccine doses have been administered in the province since the rollout began last year.