Ontario reports more than 1,300 new coronavirus cases, 16 more deaths

Ontario is reporting 1,316 new coronavirus cases on Wednesday, bringing the provincial total to 312,428.

Wednesday’s case count is higher than Tuesday’s, which saw 1,185 new infections. On Monday, 1,631 new cases were recorded (a portion of those cases were older ones recently inputted into the provincial data system) and 1,299 on Sunday.

According to Wednesday’s provincial report, 428 cases were recorded in Toronto, 244 in Peel Region, 149 in York Region, 67 in Thunder Bay, and 59 in both Ottawa and Hamilton.

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 7,099 as 16 more deaths were recorded.

Officials have listed 921 U.K. variant cases (B.1.1.7) which is up by 13 since yesterday, 39 South African variant cases (B.1.351) which is unchanged, and 17 Brazilian variant cases (P.1) which is unchanged, that have been detected so far in the province.

The cumulative case count for a mutation that was detected but the lineage was not determined was 6,045, the government indicated.

Meanwhile, 294,018 Ontarians were reported to have recovered from COVID-19, which is 94 per cent of known cases. Resolved cases increased by 1,212 from the previous day.

Active cases in Ontario now stand at 11,311 — up from the previous day when it was 11,223, and up from March 3’s total of 10,397. At the peak of the coronavirus surge in January, active cases hit above 30,000.

The seven-day average has now reached 1,238, up from yesterday at 1,187, and up from last week at 1,084.

The government said 54,149 tests were processed in the last 24 hours. There is currently a backlog of 38,518 tests awaiting results. A total of 11,523,830 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 3.7 per cent, but up from a week ago when it was at 2.4 per cent.

Ontario reported 678 people hospitalized with COVID-19 (down by 11 from the previous day) with 281 patients in intensive care units (down by nine) and 178 patients in ICUs on a ventilator (down by six).

As of 8 p.m. on Tuesday, the provincial government reported administering 978,797 COVID-19 vaccine doses, representing an increase of 35,264 in the last day. There are 279,204 people fully vaccinated with two doses.

Pfizer-BioNTech, Moderna, Oxford-AstraZeneca and Johnson and Johnson are the vaccines currently approved in Canada. The first three require two shots administered several weeks apart while the fourth requires only one.

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

• 153,855 people are male — an increase of 668 cases.
• 156,885 people are female — an increase of 639 cases.
• 42,457 people are 19 and under — an increase of 267 cases.
• 114,554 people are 20 to 39 — an increase of 478 cases.
• 90,069 people are 40 to 59 — an increase of 363 cases.
• 44,779 people are 60 to 79 — an increase of 179 cases.
• 20,500 people are 80 and over — an increase of 31 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: 289
• Deaths reported in ages 60 to 79: 1,964
• Deaths reported in ages 80 and older: 4,814
• 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 remained the same as yesterday. Eleven virus-related deaths in total have been reported among staff.

There are 84 current outbreaks in homes, which is a down by one from the previous day.

The ministry also indicated there are currently 55 active cases among long-term care residents and 134 active cases among staff — down by one and down by two cases, respectively, 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 9,681 school-related COVID-19 cases in Ontario to date — 6,984 among students and 1,546 among staff (1,151 individuals were not identified). This is an increase of 194 more cases in the last day — 159 student cases, 31 staff cases and four individuals were not identified.

In the last 14 days, the province indicates there are 1,177 cases reported among students, 189 cases among staff and 20 individuals were not identified — totaling 1,386 cases.

The COVID-19 cases are currently from 816 out of 4,828 schools in the province. Thirty-four schools in Ontario are currently closed as a result of positive cases, the government indicated.

There have been a total of 2,922 confirmed cases within child care centres and homes — an increase of 43 (28 new child cases and 15 staff cases). Out of 5,273 child care centres in Ontario, 174 currently have cases and 41 centres are closed.

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