Ontario reports 2,632 new coronavirus cases, 46 more deaths

Ontario is reporting 2,632 new cases of the coronavirus on Thursday, bringing the provincial total to 247,564.

Thursday’s case count is slightly lower than Wednesday’s which saw 2,655 new infections. On Tuesday, 1,913 cases were recorded — although the government said cases were likely underreported that day due to technical issues from Toronto Public Health.

The government noted that the technical issues from Toronto Public Health are now resolved, with 102 cases added to Thursday’s total.

“Locally, there are 897 new cases in Toronto, 412 in Peel, 245 in York Region, 162 in Ottawa and 118 in Waterloo,” Health Minister Christine Elliott said.

The death toll in the province has risen to 5,614 after 46 more deaths were reported.

Meanwhile, 215,887 Ontarians have recovered from COVID-19 which is about 87 per cent of known cases. Resolved cases increased by 2,990 from the previous day.

There were more resolved cases than new cases on Thursday.

Active cases in Ontario now stand at 26,063 — down from the previous day when it was 26,467, and down from last Thursday at 29,307.

The seven-day average has now reached 2,751, down from yesterday at 2,850 and down from last week at 3,452.

Ontario reported 1,533 people hospitalized with COVID-19 (down by 65 from the previous day), with 388 patients in an intensive care unit (down by seven) and 293 patients in ICUs on a ventilator (down by three).

The government said 70,256 tests were processed in the last 24 hours. There is currently a backlog of 52,871 tests awaiting results. A total of 9,124,841 tests have been completed since the start of the pandemic.

Test positivity — the percentage of tests that come back positive — for Thursday was 4.3 per cent, down from Wednesday at 4.9 per cent, and down from one week ago when it was 5.1 per cent.

As of 8 p.m. Wednesday, the province has administered 253,817 COVID-19 vaccine doses. There are 40,225 people fully vaccinated with two doses.

Here is a breakdown of the total cases in Ontario by gender and age:

• 120,982 people are male — an increase of 1,300 cases.
• 125,176 people are female — an increase of 1,313 cases.
• 32,356 people are 19 and under — an increase of 314 cases.
• 90,646 people are 20 to 39 — an increase of 1,004 cases.
• 71,359 people are 40 to 59 — an increase of 782 cases.
• 35,608 people are 60 to 79 — an increase of 388 cases.
• 17,547 people are 80 and over — an increase of 144 cases.
• The province notes that not all cases have a reported age or gender.

The province notes that the number of cases publicly reported each day may not align with case counts reported by the local public health unit on a given day. Local public health units report when they were first notified of a case, which can be updated and changed as information becomes available. Data may also be pulled at different times.

Here is a breakdown of the total deaths related to COVID-19 by age:

• Deaths reported in ages 19 and under: 1
• Deaths reported in ages 20 to 39: 20
• Deaths reported in ages 40 to 59: 215
• Deaths reported in ages 60 to 79: 1,500
• Deaths reported in ages 80 and older: 3,877
• The province notes there may be a reporting delay for deaths.

Ontario long-term care homes

According to the Ministry of Long-Term Care, there have been 3,256 deaths reported among residents and patients in long-term care homes across Ontario which is an increase of 17 deaths. Ten virus-related deaths in total have been reported among staff.

There are 251 current outbreaks in homes, which is unchanged from the previous day.

The ministry also indicated there are currently 1,441 active cases among long-term care residents and 1,185 active cases among staff — down by 56 cases and down by 38 cases, respectively, in the last day.