Ontario reports spike in new COVID-19 cases, logs more than 1,700 infections

TORONTO -- Ontario has recorded a single-day jump in the number of new COVID-19 cases, logging more than 1,700 new infections.

Health officials reported 1,745 new COVID-19 cases on Friday, which is an increase from the 1,553 cases recorded on Thursday.

Ontario also reported 10 additional COVID-19-related deaths.

With 56,134 tests completed in the previous 24-hour period, Ontario’s positivity rate has increased to 3.3 per cent, up from 3.1 per cent on Thursday.

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Health officials also deemed 1,296 more cases of the disease to be resolved, bringing Ontario's number of recovered patients up to 304,789.

Friday's case count brings the total number of lab-confirmed cases in Ontario to 325,254, including deaths and recoveries.

According to the province, there are at least 759 patients infected with COVID-19 in Ontario hospitals as of Friday. Of those patients, 309 are in the intensive care unit (ICU) and 176 of those 273 patients are breathing with the assistance of a ventilator.

There are 478 new cases in Toronto, 344 in Peel Region, 174 in York Region and 116 in Hamilton.

On Thursday, Ontario's top doctor confirmed in the clearest terms yet that the province is in fact in the third wave of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Chief Medical Officer of Health Dr. David Williams made the comment while describing the increase in reported cases in recent weeks.

"We are in the third wave, it's just a matter of what kind of wave will it be," Williams said.

Variants of concern in Ontario

Since the province began actively searching for COVID-19 variants of concern, there have been 10,995 mutations discovered in lab-positive tests across Ontario.

Of those mutations, 704 were found in the last 24-hour period.

While more than 10,000 variant mutations have been discovered, only 1,258 have undergone genome testing in order to be officially categorized.

There are at least 1,175 cases of the B.1.1.7. variant in Ontario, as well as 87 B.1.351 variants and 35 P.1. variants.

Meanwhile, 1,420,599 doses of the COVID-19 vaccine have been administered in Ontario thus far, including 61,146 administered in the previous day.

In Ontario, 294,749 total vaccinations have been completed as of Friday.

Backstory:

The numbers used in this story are found in the Ontario Ministry of Health's COVID-19 Daily Epidemiologic Summary. The number of cases for any city or region may differ slightly from what is reported by the province, because local units report figures at different times.