Ontario reports 1,072 new coronavirus cases, 41 more deaths

Ontario is reporting 1,072 new coronavirus cases on Wednesday, bringing the provincial total to 281,566.

Wednesday’s case count is slightly higher than Tuesday’s which saw 1,022 new infections. However, there were about 20,000 more processed tests on Wednesday than on Tuesday. On Monday, 1,265 new cases were recorded and 1,484 on Sunday.

According to Wednesday’s provincial report, 393 cases were recorded in Toronto, 196 in Peel Region, and 125 in York Region.

All other local public health units reported fewer than 50 new cases in Wednesday’s provincial report.

The death toll in the province has risen to 6,596 as 41 more deaths were reported.

Officials have included a section for confirmed variant cases and have listed 228 U.K. variant (B.1.1.7) cases and three South African variant (B.1.351) detected so far in the province. Late Sunday afternoon, the first-known Brazilian COVID-19 variant case was detected by Toronto Public Health.

Meanwhile, 261,700 Ontarians were reported to have recovered from COVID-19, which is 93 per cent of known cases.

Resolved cases increased by 1,709 from the previous day. There were more resolved cases than new cases on Wednesday.

Active cases in Ontario now stand at 13,270 — down from the previous day when it was 13,948, and down from last Wednesday at 16,811.

The seven-day average has now reached 1,353, down from yesterday at 1,367, and down from last week at 1,675 — showing a downward trend in new cases.

Ontario reported 948 people hospitalized with COVID-19 (up by 39 from the previous day) with 313 patients in intensive care units (down by five) and 226 patients in ICUs on a ventilator (up by three).

The government said 52,504 tests were processed in the last 24 hours. There is currently a backlog of 41,725 tests awaiting results. A total of 10,137,627 tests have been completed since the start of the pandemic.

Test positivity — the percentage of tests that come back positive — for Wednesday was 2.5 per cent, down from Tuesday when it was 3.3 per cent, and down from a week ago also at 3.3 per cent.

As of 8 p.m. on Tuesday, the province has administered 412,119 COVID-19 vaccine doses, representing an increase of 13,486 in the last day. There are 125,725 people fully vaccinated with two doses. Both Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna, the only vaccines currently approved in Canada, require two shots.

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

• 137,879 people are male — an increase of 592 cases.
• 142,028 people are female — an increase of 467 cases.
• 36,863 people are 19 and under — an increase of 162 cases.
• 102,919 people are 20 to 39 — an increase of 388 cases.
• 81,415 people are 40 to 59 — an increase of 298 cases.
• 40,727 people are 60 to 79 — an increase of 175 cases.
• 19,591 people are 80 and over — an increase of 50 cases.
• The province notes that not all cases have a reported age or gender.

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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: 26
• Deaths reported in ages 40 to 59: 256
• Deaths reported in ages 60 to 79: 1,790
• Deaths reported in ages 80 and older: 4,521
• The province notes there may be a reporting delay for deaths and data corrections or updates can result in death records being removed.

Ontario long-term care homes

According to the Ministry of Long-Term Care, there have been 3,683 deaths reported among residents and patients in long-term care homes across Ontario which is an increase of 15 deaths. Eleven virus-related deaths in total have been reported among staff.

There are 200 current outbreaks in homes, which is a decrease of five from the previous day.

The ministry also indicated there are currently 394 active cases among long-term care residents and 568 active cases among staff — down by 65 cases and down by 83 cases, respectively, in the last day.