Ontario reports spike in COVID-19 cases with more than 2,400 new infections

Ontario is reporting more than 2,400 new COVID-19 cases for the first time in seven months as the province's positivity rate soars to seven per cent.

On Thursday morning, health officials reported 2,421 infections in Ontario, as well as nine deaths related to the disease.

The last time Ontario’s daily case count was this high was on May 15, when 2,584 cases of the novel coronavirus were reported.

The number of COVID-19 cases reported daily in Ontario has steadily increased over the past few days, with 1,429 infections reported Tuesday and 1,808 infections on Wednesday.

The province’s rolling seven-day average of COVID-19 cases now stands at about 1,674, up from 1,055 the previous week.

With just over 54,700 tests processed in the last 24 hours, the Ministry of Health says the province's positivity rate now stands at about seven per cent. The last time the positivity rate was this high was on May 18.

There are 328 people are hospitalized with COVID-19, Health Minister Christine Elliott says, and 256 are not fully vaccinated or have an unknown vaccination status.

There are also at least 165 people being treated for COVID-19 in Ontario intensive care units. Minister of Health Christine Elliott says that of those patients, 141 are not fully vaccinated or have an unknown vaccination status.

According to the province, 758 of the infections reported Thursday are in people who are either unvaccinated or partially vaccinated and 1,530 are in people who are fully vaccinated. One hundred and thirty three cases are in individuals with an unknown vaccination status.

Health officials have said it is normal to see more fully vaccinated people contracting COVID-19 as the number of people who get the shot increases. Vaccination continues to reduce the risk of hospitalization due to the novel coronavirus.

WHERE ARE THE COVID-19 CASES?

Multiple public health units across Ontario are reporting more than 100 cases of the novel coronavirus.

According to the province’s epidemiology report, there are 505 cases in Toronto, 206 in Ottawa, 190 in Kingston, 153 in Peel Region, 143 in York Region, 1`30 in Windsor-Essex, 115 in Niagara, 115 in Halton and 107 in Simcoe-Muskoka.

Of the infections reported on Thursday, 378 are in kids under the age of 12 and 241 cases are in youth between the ages of 12 and 19.

Officials are also reporting 335 new school-related COVID-19 cases, including 278 infections in kids and 47 in staff members. Sixty schools in Ontario are now closed due to COVID-19.

There are 938 infections in people between the ages of 20 and 39 and 638 infections in individuals between the ages of 40 and 59.

Two hundred and twenty two cases were reported in people over the age of 60.

A little more than 90 per cent of Ontarians aged 12 and up have received at least one dose of a COVID-19 vaccine while almost 88 per cent have received both doses.