Ontario reports more than 1,700 new COVID-19 cases, 10 deaths

Ontario is reporting 1,745 new COVID-19 cases on Friday, bringing the provincial total to 325,254.

Friday’s case count is higher than Thursday’s which saw 1,553 new infections. On Wednesday, 1,508 new cases were recorded and 1,074 on Tuesday.

According to Friday’s provincial report, 478 cases were recorded in Toronto, 344 in Peel Region, 174 in York Region, 116 in Hamilton, 96 in Durham Region, and 73 in Ottawa.

All other local public health units reported fewer than 70 new cases in the provincial report.

The death toll in the province has risen to 7,212 as 10 more deaths were recorded.

Officials have listed breakdown data for the new VOCs (variants of concern) which consist of the B.1.1.7 (first detected in the United Kingdom), B.1.351 (first detected in South Africa), and P.1 (first detected in Brazil) mutations.

The B.1.1.7 VOC is currently the dominating known strain at 1,175 variant cases, which is up by 39 since yesterday, 48 B.1.351 variant cases which is up by one, and 35 P.1 variant cases 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 10,995, an increase of 704, the government indicated.

Meanwhile, 304,789 Ontarians were reported to have recovered from COVID-19, which is about 94 per cent of known cases. Resolved cases increased by 1,296 from the previous day.

Active cases in Ontario now stand at 13,253 — up from the previous day when it was at 12,814, and is up from March 12 when it was at 11,512. At the peak of the coronavirus surge in January, active cases hit above 30,000.

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The seven-day average has now reached 1,480, up from yesterday at 1,427, and is up from last week at 1,269.

The government said 56,134 tests were processed in the last 24 hours. There is currently a backlog of 29,545 tests awaiting results. A total of 11,981,432 tests have been completed since the start of the pandemic.

Test positivity — the percentage of tests that come back positive — for Friday was 3.3 per cent, up from Thursday at 3.1 per cent, and up from last week at 2.4 per cent.

Ontario reported 759 people hospitalized with COVID-19 (up by 29 from the previous day) with 309 patients in intensive care units (up by five) and 176 patients in ICUs on a ventilator (down by 10).

As of 8 p.m. on Thursday, the provincial government reported administering 1,420,599 COVID-19 vaccine doses, representing an increase of 61,146 in the last day. There are 294,749 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:

• 160,411 people are male — an increase of 917 cases.
• 163,016 people are female — an increase of 807 cases.
• 45,033 people are 19 and under — an increase of 345 cases.
• 119,283 people are 20 to 39 — an increase of 625 cases.
• 93,622 people are 40 to 59 — an increase of 490 cases.
• 46,384 people are 60 to 79 — an increase of 237 cases.
• 20,852 people are 80 and over — an increase of 43 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: 32
• Deaths reported in ages 40 to 59: 300
• Deaths reported in ages 60 to 79: 2,008
• Deaths reported in ages 80 and older: 4,869
• 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 3,753 deaths reported among residents and patients in long-term care homes across Ontario which increased by one death since yesterday. Eleven virus-related deaths in total have been reported among staff.

There are 52 current outbreaks in homes, which is down by seven from the previous day.

The ministry also indicated there are currently 11 active cases among long-term care residents and 98 active cases among staff — down by 13 and down by 10, 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 10,882 school-related COVID-19 cases in Ontario to date — 7,967 among students and 1,762 among staff (1,153 individuals were not identified). This is an increase of 132 more cases in the last day — 106 student cases and 36 staff cases.

In the last 14 days, the province indicates there are 1,388 cases reported among students, 291 cases among staff and 18 individuals were not identified — totaling 1,697 cases.

The COVID-19 cases are currently from 908 out of 4,828 schools in the province. Thirty-eight schools in Ontario are currently closed as a result of positive cases, the government indicated.

There have been a total of 3,167 confirmed cases within child care centres and homes — an increase of 45 (23 new child cases and 22 staff cases). Out of 5,275 child care centres in Ontario, 215 currently have cases and 49 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.