Ontario reports more than 1,000 new coronavirus cases, 6 more deaths

Ontario is reporting 1,023 new coronavirus cases on Monday, bringing the provincial total to 301,839.

Monday’s case count is slightly lower than Sunday’s which saw 1,062 new infections. On Saturday, 1,185 new cases were recorded and 1,258 on Friday.

According to Monday’s provincial report, 280 cases were recorded in Toronto, 182 in Peel Region, 72 in Ottawa, 55 in Thunder Bay and 53 in Hamilton.

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

Officials have listed 535 U.K. variant cases (B.1.1.7) which is up by seven since yesterday, 27 South African variant cases (B.1.351) which is unchanged, and three 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 6,986 as six more virus-related fatalities were reported which is the lowest daily increase in deaths since the end of October.

Meanwhile, 284,283 Ontarians were reported to have recovered from COVID-19, which is 94 per cent of known cases. Resolved cases increased by 939 from the previous day. There were more new cases than resolved cases on Monday.

Active cases in Ontario now stand at 10,570 — up from the previous day when it was 10,492, and up from last Monday at 10,335. At the peak of the coronavirus surge in January, active cases hit above 30,000.

The seven-day average has now reached 1,099, down from yesterday at 1,104, but up from last week at 1,045.

The government said 35,015 tests were processed in the last 24 hours. There is currently a backlog of 13,416 tests awaiting results. A total of 11,080,168 tests have been completed since the start of the pandemic.

Test positivity — the percentage of tests that come back positive — for Monday was 3.1 per cent, up from Sunday when it was 2.4 per cent, but down from a week ago when it was at 3.3 per cent.

Ontario reported 659 people hospitalized with COVID-19 (up by 32 from the previous day) with 280 patients in intensive care units (down by nine) and 175 patients in ICUs on a ventilator (down by 10).

As of 8 p.m. on Sunday, the province has administered 704,695 COVID-19 vaccine doses, representing an increase of 17,424 in the last day. There are 263,214 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:

• 148,468 people are male — an increase of 511 cases.
• 151,820 people are female — an increase of 503 cases.
• 40,421 people are 19 and under — an increase of 225 cases.
• 110,555 people are 20 to 39 — an increase of 396 cases.
• 87,178 people are 40 to 59 — an increase of 268 cases.
• 43,397 people are 60 to 79 — an increase of 118 cases.
• 20,222 people are 80 and over — an increase of 13 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: 30
• Deaths reported in ages 40 to 59: 282
• Deaths reported in ages 60 to 79: 1,917
• Deaths reported in ages 80 and older: 4,754
• 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 3,744 deaths reported among residents and patients in long-term care homes across Ontario which is unchanged from yesterday. Eleven virus-related deaths in total have been reported among staff.

There are 106 current outbreaks in homes, which is unchanged from the previous day.

The ministry also indicated there are currently 80 active cases among long-term care residents and 179 active cases among staff — cases for both have stayed the same in the last 24 hours.

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

Meanwhile, government figures show there have been a total of 8,563 school-related COVID-19 cases in Ontario to date — 6,043 among students and 1,387 among staff (1,133 individuals were not identified). This is an increase of 116 more cases in the last day — 99 student cases, 15 staff cases and two were not identified.

In the last 14 days, the province indicates there are 715 cases reported among students, 120 cases among staff and nine individuals were not identified — totaling 844 cases.

The COVID-19 cases are currently from 530 out of 4,828 schools in the province.

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

There have been a total of 2,675 confirmed cases within child care centres and homes — an increase of 13 (seven new child cases and six staff cases). Out of 5,264 child care centres in Ontario, 139 currently have cases and 21 centres are closed.

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