Ontario reports nearly 1,700 new COVID-19 cases, 3 deaths

Ontario is reporting 1,699 new COVID-19 cases on Monday, bringing the provincial total to 330,573.

Monday’s case count is lower than Sunday’s which saw 1,791 new infections. On Saturday, 1829 new cases were recorded and 1,745 on Friday.

According to Monday’s provincial report, 500 cases were recorded in Toronto, 318 in Peel Region, 155 in York Region, 114 in Hamilton, 85 in Ottawa and 79 in Durham Region.

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 7,244 as three more deaths were recorded — the lowest number of deaths in a single-day since October.

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 1,340 variant cases, which is up by 53 since yesterday, 48 B.1.351 variant cases which is up by one, and 36 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 13,228, an increase of 597, the government indicated.

Meanwhile, 308,578 Ontarians were reported to have recovered from COVID-19, which is about 93 per cent of known cases. Resolved cases increased by 1,175 from the previous day.

Active cases in Ontario now stand at 14,751— up from the previous day when it was at 14,230, and is up from March 15 when it was at 12,528. At the peak of the coronavirus surge in January, active cases hit above 30,000.

The seven-day average has now reached 1,600, up from yesterday at 1,538, and is up from last week at 1,350. A month ago, the seven-day average was around 1,000.

The government said 31,089 tests were processed in the last 24 hours. There is currently a backlog of 14,407 tests awaiting results. A total of 12,113,837 tests have been completed since the start of the pandemic.

Test positivity — the percentage of tests that come back positive — for Monday was 5.4 per cent, which is the highest test positivity since late January, that is up from Sunday at 3.7 per cent, and up from last week at 3.8 per cent.

Ontario reported 813 people hospitalized with COVID-19 (up by 53 from the previous day) with 298 patients in intensive care units (down by seven) and 186 patients in ICUs on a ventilator (unchanged).

As of 8 p.m. on Sunday, the provincial government reported administering 1,553,040 COVID-19 vaccine doses, representing an increase of 31,335 in the last day. There are 299,297 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:

• 163,175 people are male — an increase of 871 cases.
• 165,560 people are female — an increase of 810 cases.
• 46,113 people are 19 and under — an increase of 327 cases.
• 121,199 people are 20 to 39 — an increase of 604 cases.
• 95,119 people are 40 to 59 — an increase of 493 cases.
• 47,087 people are 60 to 79 — an increase of 238 cases.
• 20,976 people are 80 and over — an increase of 40 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: 302
• Deaths reported in ages 60 to 79: 2,023
• Deaths reported in ages 80 and older: 4,884
• 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 did not increase since yesterday. Eleven virus-related deaths in total have been reported among staff.

There are 56 current outbreaks in homes, which is up by four from the previous day.

The ministry also indicated there are currently 12 active cases among long-term care residents and 110 active cases among staff — up by one and up by nine, 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 11,025 school-related COVID-19 cases in Ontario to date — 8,086 among students and 1,785 among staff (1,154 individuals were not identified). This is an increase of 140 more cases in the last day — 120 student cases, 19 staff cases and one individual was not identified.

In the last 14 days, the province indicates there are 1,432 cases reported among students, 301 cases among staff and 19 individuals were not identified — totaling 1,752 cases.

The COVID-19 cases are currently from 921 out of 4,828 schools in the province. Forty-four schools in Ontario are currently closed as a result of positive cases, the government indicated.

There have been a total of 3,195 confirmed cases within child care centres and homes — an increase of 29 (17 new child cases and 12 staff cases). Out of 5,275 child care centres in Ontario, 212 currently have cases and 52 centres are closed.

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