Ontario reports more than 1,200 new coronavirus cases, 28 more deaths

Ontario is reporting 1,258 new coronavirus cases on Friday, bringing the provincial total to 298,569.

Friday’s case count is higher than Thursday’s which saw 1,138 new infections. On Wednesday, 1,054 new cases were recorded and 975 on Tuesday.

According to Friday’s provincial report, 362 cases were recorded in Toronto, 274 in Peel Region, 104 in York Region, 69 in Waterloo, 64 in Hamilton and 52 in Ottawa.

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

Officials have listed 477 U.K. variant cases (B.1.1.7) which is up by 28 since yesterday, 14 South African variant cases (B.1.351) which is up by three, and two Brazilian variant cases (P.1) which is unchanged, that have been detected so far in the province.

The death toll in the province has risen to 6,944 as 28 more deaths were reported.

Meanwhile, 281,331 Ontarians were reported to have recovered from COVID-19, which is 94 per cent of known cases. Resolved cases increased by 1,007 from the previous day. There were more new cases than resolved cases on Friday.

Active cases in Ontario now stand at 10,294 — up from the previous day when it was 10,071, but down from last Friday at 10,550. At the peak of the coronavirus surge in January, active cases hit above 30,000.

The seven-day average has now reached 1,114, up from yesterday at 1,099, and up from last week at 1,026 —  showing an upward trend in new cases.

The government said 64,049 tests were processed in the last 24 hours. There is currently a backlog of 35,502 tests awaiting results. A total of 10,936,552 tests have been completed since the start of the pandemic.

Test positivity — the percentage of tests that come back positive — for Friday was 2.3 per cent, up from Thursday when it was two per cent, and up from a week ago when it was at 2.2 per cent.

Ontario reported 683 people hospitalized with COVID-19 (down by four from the previous day) with 284 patients in intensive care units (up by one) and 193 patients in ICUs on a ventilator (up by 11).

As of 8 p.m. on Thursday, the province has administered 643,765 COVID-19 vaccine doses, representing an increase of 21,805 in the last day. There are 258,014 people fully vaccinated with two doses.

On Friday morning, the federal government approved Oxford-AstraZeneca’s vaccine for use following Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna, the only vaccines currently approved in Canada which all require two shots.

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

• 146,765 people are male — an increase of 682 cases.
• 150,285 people are female — an increase of 626 cases.
• 39,686 people are 19 and under — an increase of 228 cases.
• 109,323 people are 20 to 39 — an increase of 477 cases.
• 86,338 people are 40 to 59 — an increase of 355 cases.
• 42,992 people are 60 to 79 — an increase of 154 cases.
• 20,166 people are 80 and over — an increase of 42 cases.
• The province notes that not all cases have a reported age or gender.

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: 29
• Deaths reported in ages 40 to 59: 280
• Deaths reported in ages 60 to 79: 1,897
• Deaths reported in ages 80 and older: 4,735
• The province notes there may be a reporting delay for deaths and data corrections or updates can result in death records being removed.

Cases, deaths and outbreaks in Ontario long-term care homes

According to the Ministry of Long-Term Care, there have been 3,743 deaths reported among residents and patients in long-term care homes across Ontario which is an increase of one death. Eleven virus-related deaths in total have been reported among staff.

There are 111 current outbreaks in homes, which is unchanged from the previous day.

The ministry also indicated there are currently 101 active cases among long-term care residents and 202 active cases among staff — down by four cases each in the last day.

Cases among students and staff at Ontario schools, child care centres

Meanwhile, government figures show there have been a total of 8,452 school-related COVID-19 cases in Ontario to date — 5,946 among students and 1,375 among staff (1,131 individuals were not identified). This is an increase of 101 more cases in the last day — 89 student cases and 12 staff cases.

In the last 14 days, the province indicates there are 620 cases reported among students, 108 cases among staff  and seven individuals were not identified — totaling 735 cases.

The COVID-19 cases are currently from 468 out of 4,828 schools in the province.

Eighteen schools in Ontario are currently closed as a result of positive cases, the government indicated.

There have been a total of 2,662 confirmed cases within child care centres and homes — an increase of 29 (20 new child cases and nine staff cases). Out of 5,264 child care centres in Ontario, 143 currently have cases and 19 centres are closed.

Data for cases in schools and child care centres are updated weekdays only, at 10:30 a.m. On Friday’s, numbers are included from Wednesday afternoon to Thursday afternoon.