Here are the latest developments on the coronavirus pandemic in the Greater Toronto Area for Saturday.
Some family doctors in Toronto, Peel Region start administering vaccines
Some family doctors in Ontario were set to start administering COVID-19 vaccinations in six regions Saturday.
The province announced this week that some doctors’ offices in Toronto, Peel Region, Hamilton, Guelph, Peterborough, and Simcoe-Muskoka will be administering the Oxford-AstraZeneca shot.
The Ontario Medical Association says physicians in those regions are asking for patience as they begin administering doses of the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine to people aged 60 to 64 years old.
Over 239K vaccines administered in Toronto to date
City of Toronto officials said Saturday that to date, there have been over 239,000 COVID-19 vaccine doses administered in the city.
In addition to family doctors and pharmacies administering the AstraZeneca vaccine to those aged 60 to 64, hospitals and health providers are also holding a total of 22 vaccination clinics in the city during the weekend targeting priority populations identified by the province.
Toronto residents aged 80 and older can also currently book an appointment to receive a vaccine at a City-run clinic. Three City-run community vaccination centres are set to begin operating on Wednesday. Officials said that as of Saturday morning, 7,878 people had booked an appointment.
Officials noted that there may be an interruption in booking appointments from Sunday at 8 p.m. until Monday morning as the provincewide booking system comes online.
Status of cases in the GTA
Ontario reported a total of 1,468 new coronavirus cases on Saturday.
Of those:
- 381 were in Toronto
- 226 were in Peel Region
- 168 were in York Region
- 38 were in Durham Region
- 46 were in Halton Region
Ontario reports more than 1,400 new cases, 11 deaths
Ontario reported 1,468 cases of the novel coronavirus Saturday, bringing the total number of cases in the province to 316,359.
A total of 297,403 COVID-19 cases are considered resolved, which is up by 1,151 and is 94 per cent of all confirmed cases.
Eleven new deaths were also reported on Saturday, bringing the provincial death toll to 7,138.
The province indicated that the positivity rate for the last day was 2.9 per cent, which is up from Friday’s report, when it was 2.4 per cent, and up from last Saturday’s report, when it was 2.3 per cent.
Ontario reports record number of vaccines administered
As of 8 p.m. Friday, 1,116,496 COVID-19 vaccine doses have been administered in Ontario, which is up by a record 53,586 over 24 hours.
So far, 284,686 people in the province are considered to be fully vaccinated.
“Each day, we’re pushing our capacity to new limits — but we can do so much more!” Premier Doug Ford said in a tweet.
“As soon as the federal government starts sending us mass deliveries of vaccines, we’ll really ramp things up.”
–With files from The Canadian Press