Ontario reports nearly 2,100 new coronavirus cases, death toll surpasses 6,000

Ontario is reporting 2,093 new cases of the coronavirus on Thursday, bringing the provincial total to 262,463.

Thursday’s case count is higher than Wednesday’s which saw 1,670 new infections. On Tuesday, 1,740 new cases were recorded and 1,958 on Monday.

It also put daily case counts back above 2,000 after the last three days saw numbers below it. However, Thursday also saw more tests completed in the last week.

“Locally, there are 700 new cases in Toronto, 331 in Peel, 228 in York Region and 123 in Niagara,” Health Minister Christine Elliott said.

The death toll in the province has risen to 6,014 — surpassing the 6,000 mark — after 56 more deaths were reported.

Meanwhile, 234,971 Ontarians have recovered from COVID-19 which is about 89 per cent of known cases. Resolved cases increased by 2,491 from the previous day.

There were more resolved cases than new cases on Thursday.

Active cases in Ontario now stand at 21,478 — down from the previous day when it was 21,932, and down from last Thursday at 26,063.

The seven-day average has now reached 2,128, down from yesterday at 2,205 and down from last week at 2,751— showing a downward trend in new cases.

Ontario reported 1,338 people hospitalized with COVID-19 (down by 44 from the previous day), with 377 patients in an intensive care unit (down by 19) and 276 patients in ICUs on a ventilator (down by 15).

The government said 64,664 tests were processed in the last 24 hours. There is currently a backlog of 48,386 tests awaiting results. A total of 9,495,531 tests have been completed since the start of the pandemic.

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Test positivity — the percentage of tests that come back positive — for Thursday was 3.3 per cent, down from Wednesday at four per cent, and down from one week ago when it was 4.3 per cent.

As of 8 p.m. Wednesday, the province has administered 317,240 COVID-19 vaccine doses. There are 55,286 people fully vaccinated with two doses. Both Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna, the only two vaccines currently approved in Canada, require two shots.

The province noted Thursday morning before the day’s data was released that officials had previously “inadvertently provided data on the number of doses administered to achieve full vaccination” and as a result “the number of people who have been fully vaccinated is half of what is currently listed.” The data has now been amended after showing 96,459 total vaccinations to 55,286.

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

• 128,433 people are male — an increase of 1,039 cases.
• 132,574 people are female — an increase of 1,034 cases.
• 34,291 people are 19 and under — an increase of 262 cases.
• 96,031 people are 20 to 39 — an increase of 746 cases.
• 75,684 people are 40 to 59 — an increase of 598 cases.
• 37,866 people are 60 to 79 — an increase of 328 cases.
• 18,553 people are 80 and over — an increase of 163 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: 2
• Deaths reported in ages 20 to 39: 22
• Deaths reported in ages 40 to 59: 225
• Deaths reported in ages 60 to 79: 1,621
• Deaths reported in ages 80 and older: 4,143
• 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 3,462 deaths reported among residents and patients in long-term care homes across Ontario which is an increase of 34 deaths. Eleven virus-related deaths in total have been reported among staff.

There are 229 current outbreaks in homes, which is a decrease of nine from the previous day.

The ministry also indicated there are currently 1,041 active cases among long-term care residents and 938 active cases among staff — up by two cases and down by 36 cases, respectively, in the last day.