Ontario reports 1,371 new coronavirus cases, 18 more deaths

Ontario is reporting 1,371 new coronavirus cases on Friday, bringing the provincial total to 314,891.

Friday’s case count is higher than Thursday’s which saw 1,092 new infections. On Wednesday, 1,316 new cases were recorded and 1,185 on Tuesday.

According to Friday’s provincial report, 371 cases were recorded in Toronto, 225 in Peel Region, 111 in York Region, 109 in Hamilton and 83 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 7,127 as 18 more deaths were recorded.

Officials have listed 1,005 U.K. variant cases (B.1.1.7) which is up by 49 since yesterday, 42 South African variant cases (B.1.351) which is up by one, and 34 Brazilian variant cases (P.1) which is up by six, 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 6,859, an increase of 346, the government indicated.

Meanwhile, 296,252 Ontarians were reported to have recovered from COVID-19, which is 94 per cent of known cases. Resolved cases increased by 1,124 from the previous day.

Active cases in Ontario now stand at 11,512 — up from the previous day when it was 11,283, and up from March 5 at 10,378. At the peak of the coronavirus surge in January, active cases hit above 30,000.

The government said 64,611 tests were processed in the last 24 hours. There is currently a backlog of 36,744 tests awaiting results. A total of 11,649,060 tests have been completed since the start of the pandemic.

Test positivity — the percentage of tests that come back positive — for Friday and Thursday was 2.4 per cent for both, up from last Friday when it was 2.3 per cent.

Ontario reported 676 people hospitalized with COVID-19 (down by four from the previous day) with 282 patients in intensive care units (up by five) and 189 patients in ICUs on a ventilator (up by five).

As of 8 p.m. on Thursday, the provincial government reported administering 1,062,910 COVID-19 vaccine doses, representing an increase of 43,503 in the last day. There are 282,748 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:

• 155,107 people are male — an increase of 693 cases.
• 158,083 people are female — an increase of 685 cases.
• 42,926 people are 19 and under — an increase of 283 cases.
• 115,483 people are 20 to 39 — an increase of 504 cases.
• 90,750 people are 40 to 59 — an increase of 359 cases.
• 45,093 people are 60 to 79 — an increase of 183 cases.
• 20,567 people are 80 and over — an increase of 41 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: 294
• Deaths reported in ages 60 to 79: 1,974
• Deaths reported in ages 80 and older: 4,827
• 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 3,750 deaths reported among residents and patients in long-term care homes across Ontario which increase by one death since yesterday. Eleven virus-related deaths in total have been reported among staff.

There are 80 current outbreaks in homes, which is a down by three from the previous day.

The ministry also indicated there are currently 45 active cases among long-term care residents and 138 active cases among staff — down by six and up by one, 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 9,949 school-related COVID-19 cases in Ontario to date — 7,189 among students and 1,610 among staff (1,150 individuals were not identified). This is an increase of 137 more cases in the last day — 99 student cases and 38 staff cases.

In the last 14 days, the province indicates there are 1,219 cases reported among students, 233 cases among staff and 19 individuals were not identified — totaling 1,471 cases.

The COVID-19 cases are currently from 850 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 2,968 confirmed cases within child care centres and homes — an increase of 20 (14 new child cases and six staff cases). Out of 5,273 child care centres in Ontario, 179 currently have cases and 47 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.