Ontario reports 966 new coronavirus cases, 11 more deaths

Ontario is reporting 966 new coronavirus cases on Tuesday, bringing the provincial total to 302,805

Tuesday’s case count is lower than Monday’s which saw 1,023 new infections. On Sunday, 1,062 new cases were recorded and 1,185 on Saturday. It is also the first time in a week that daily cases have been fewer than 1,000.

According to Tuesday’s provincial report, 253 cases were recorded in Toronto, 223 in Peel Region, 99 in York Region and 64 in Ottawa.

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

Officials have listed 542 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 6,997 as 11 more deaths were recorded.

Meanwhile, 285,262 Ontarians were reported to have recovered from COVID-19, which is 94 per cent of known cases. Resolved cases increased by 979 from the previous day. There were slightly more resolved cases than new cases on Tuesday.

Active cases in Ontario now stand at 10,546 — down from the previous day when it was 10,570, but up from last Tuesday at 10,296. At the peak of the coronavirus surge in January, active cases hit above 30,000.

The seven-day average has now reached 1,098, down from yesterday at 1,099, but up from last week at 1,055.

The government said 30,767 tests were processed in the last 24 hours. There is currently a backlog of 31,074 tests awaiting results. A total of 11,110,935 tests have been completed since the start of the pandemic.

Test positivity — the percentage of tests that come back positive — for Tuesday was 2.9 per cent, down from Monday when it was 3.1 per cent, and down from a week ago when it was at 4.2 per cent.

Ontario reported 677 people hospitalized with COVID-19 (up by 18 from the previous day) with 284 patients in intensive care units (up by four) and 189 patients in ICUs on a ventilator (up by 14).

As of 8 p.m. on Monday, the province has administered 727,021 COVID-19 vaccine doses, representing an increase of 22,326 in the last day. There are 264,896 people fully vaccinated with two doses.

Last week, 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:

• 148,970 people are male — an increase of 502 cases.
• 152,268 people are female — an increase of 448 cases.
• 40,604 people are 19 and under — an increase of 183 cases.
• 110,944 people are 20 to 39 — an increase of 389 cases.
• 87,427 people are 40 to 59 — an increase of 249 cases.
• 43,516 people are 60 to 79 — an increase of 119 cases.
• 20,250 people are 80 and over — an increase of 28 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: 283
• Deaths reported in ages 60 to 79: 1,921
• Deaths reported in ages 80 and older: 4,760
• 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 3,746 deaths reported among residents and patients in long-term care homes across Ontario which is an increase of two deaths from yesterday. Eleven virus-related deaths in total have been reported among staff.

There are 97 current outbreaks in homes, which is down by nine from the previous day.

The ministry also indicated there are currently 71 active cases among long-term care residents and 162 active cases among staff — down by nine and down by 17, respectively, 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 8,813 school-related COVID-19 cases in Ontario to date — 6,262 among students and 1,417 among staff (1,134 individuals were not identified). This is an increase of 262  more cases in the last three days — 231 student cases, 30 staff cases and one was not identified.

In the last 14 days, the province indicates there are 913 cases reported among students, 149  cases among staff and 10 individuals were not identified — totaling 1,072 cases.

The COVID-19 cases are currently from 640 out of 4,828 schools in the province.

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

There have been a total of 2,716 confirmed cases within child care centres and homes — an increase of 41 (33 new child cases and eight staff cases). Out of 5,268 child care centres in Ontario, 149 currently have cases and 24 centres are closed.

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