Ontario reports 1,250 new coronavirus cases, 22 more deaths

Ontario is reporting 1,250 new coronavirus cases on Friday, bringing the provincial total to 306,007.

Friday’s case count is higher than Thursday which saw 994 new infections — and the number of tests processed on both days were roughly the same. On Wednesday, 958 new cases were recorded and 966 on Tuesday.

According to Friday’s provincial report, 337 cases were recorded in Toronto, 167 in Peel Region, 129 in York Region, 74 in Hamilton, 63 in Ottawa and 55 in Durham Region.

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

The death toll in the province has risen to 7,046 as 22 more deaths were recorded.

Officials have listed 799 U.K. variant cases (B.1.1.7) which is up by 155 since yesterday — the largest single-day increase so far, 31 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.

Meanwhile, 287,424 Ontarians were reported to have recovered from COVID-19, which is 94 per cent of known cases. Resolved cases increased by 1,159 from the previous day.

Active cases in Ontario now stand at 10,378 — up from the previous day when it was 10,309, but up from last Friday at 10,294. At the peak of the coronavirus surge in January, active cases hit above 30,000.

The seven-day average has now reached 1,063, down from yesterday at 1,064, and down from last week at 1,114.

The government said 64,748 tests were processed in the last 24 hours. There is currently a backlog of 34,037 tests awaiting results. A total of 11,293,939 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 2.1 per cent, but the same as a week ago when it was at 2.3 per cent.

Ontario reported 643 people hospitalized with COVID-19 (up by six from the previous day) with 280 patients in intensive care units (down by one) and 183 patients in ICUs on a ventilator (unchanged).

As of 8 p.m. Thursday, the province has administered 820,714 COVID-19 vaccine doses, representing an increase of 35,886 in the last day. There are 269,063 people fully vaccinated with two doses.

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Pfizer-BioNTech, Moderna, and the newly approved Oxford-AstraZeneca, are the only vaccines currently approved in Canada and all require two shots several weeks apart.

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

• 150,633 people are male — an increase of 641 cases.
• 153,766 people are female — an increase of 584 cases.
• 41,170 people are 19 and under — an increase of 226 cases.
• 112,161 people are 20 to 39 — an increase of 465 cases.
• 88,324 people are 40 to 59 — an increase of 364 cases.
• 43,946 people are 60 to 79 — an increase of 159 cases.
• 20,337 people are 80 and over — an increase of 34 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: 287
• Deaths reported in ages 60 to 79: 1,942
• Deaths reported in ages 80 and older: 4,784
• 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 3,748 deaths reported among residents and patients in long-term care homes across Ontario which is an increase of three from yesterday. Eleven virus-related deaths in total have been reported among staff.

There are 86 current outbreaks in homes, which is a decrease of eight from the previous day.

The ministry also indicated there are currently 60 active cases among long-term care residents and 154 active cases among staff — down by two and down by nine, 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 9,143 school-related COVID-19 cases in Ontario to date — 6,539 among students and 1,466 among staff (1,138 individuals were not identified). This is an increase of 96 more cases in the last day — 82 student cases, 13 staff cases and one was not identified.

In the last 14 days, the province indicates there are 1,022 cases reported among students, 161 cases among staff and 13 individuals were not identified — totaling 1,196 cases.

The COVID-19 cases are currently from 703 out of 4,828 schools in the province. Twenty-nine schools in Ontario are currently closed as a result of positive cases, the government indicated.

There have been a total of 2,787 confirmed cases within child care centres and homes — an increase of 24 (16 new child cases and eight staff cases). Out of 5,268 child care centres in Ontario, 150 currently have cases and 37 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.