Ontario reports 1,092 new coronavirus cases as province hits 1M vaccination milestone

Ontario is reporting 1,092 new coronavirus cases on Thursday, bringing the provincial total to 313,520.

Thursday’s case count is lower than Wednesday’s which saw 1,316 new infections. On Tuesday, 1,185 new cases were recorded and 1,631 on Monday (a portion of those cases were older ones recently inputted into the provincial data system).

According to Thursday’s provincial report, 293 cases were recorded in Toronto, 199 in Peel Region, 79 in York Region and 64 in Ottawa.

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 7,109 as 10 more deaths were recorded.

Officials have listed 956 U.K. variant cases (B.1.1.7) which is up by 35 since yesterday, 41 South African variant cases (B.1.351) which is up by two, and 28 Brazilian variant cases (P.1) which is up by 11, 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 6,513 and was an increase of 468, the government indicated.

Meanwhile, 295,128 Ontarians were reported to have recovered from COVID-19, which is 94 per cent of known cases. Resolved cases increased by 1,110 from the previous day.

Active cases in Ontario now stand at 11,283 — down from the previous day when it was 11,311, and down from March 4’s total of 10,309. At the peak of the coronavirus surge in January, active cases hit above 30,000.

The government said 60,619 tests were processed in the last 24 hours. There is currently a backlog of 42,033 tests awaiting results. A total of 11,584,449 tests have been completed since the start of the pandemic.

Test positivity — the percentage of tests that come back positive — for Thursday was 2.4 per cent, down from Wednesday when it was 2.5 per cent, but up from a week ago when it was at 2.1 per cent.

Ontario reported 680 people hospitalized with COVID-19 (up by two from the previous day) with 277 patients in intensive care units (down by four) and 184 patients in ICUs on a ventilator (up by six).

Ontario Health Minister Christine Elliott said the province has administered more than a million COVID-19 vaccine doses so far, having now given 1,019,407 shots. This is an increase of 40,610 shots with 281,714 people fully vaccinated with two doses.

“This achievement is a true Team Ontario effort. Thank you to our public health units, vaccination sites and other health care partners for your incredible efforts to help us reach this milestone,” Elliott said in a tweet on Thursday morning.

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:

• 154,414 people are male — an increase of 559 cases.
• 157,398 people are female — an increase of 513 cases.
• 42,643 people are 19 and under — an increase of 186 cases.
• 114,979 people are 20 to 39 — an increase of 425 cases.
• 90,391 people are 40 to 59 — an increase of 322 cases.
• 44,910 people are 60 to 79 — an increase of 131 cases.
• 20,526 people are 80 and over — an increase of 26 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: 293
• Deaths reported in ages 60 to 79: 1,966
• Deaths reported in ages 80 and older: 4,818
• 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 3,749 deaths reported among residents and patients in long-term care homes across Ontario which an increase of one death from yesterday. Eleven virus-related deaths in total have been reported among staff.

There are 83 current outbreaks in homes, which is a down by one from the previous day.

The ministry also indicated there are currently 51 active cases among long-term care residents and 137 active cases among staff — down by four and up by three 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 9,809 school-related COVID-19 cases in Ontario to date — 7,090 among students and 1,569 among staff (1,150 individuals were not identified). This is an increase of 124 more cases in the last day — 102 student cases and 22 staff cases.

In the last 14 days, the province indicates there are 1,210 cases reported among students, 202 cases among staff and 19 individuals were not identified — totaling 1,431 cases.

The COVID-19 cases are currently from 834 out of 4,828 schools in the province. Thirty-three schools in Ontario are currently closed as a result of positive cases, the government indicated.

There have been a total of 2,949 confirmed cases within child care centres and homes — an increase of 27 (20 new child cases and seven staff cases). Out of 5,273 child care centres in Ontario, 179 currently have cases and 46 centres are closed.

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