Ontario reports 1,571 new COVID-19 cases, 10 deaths

Ontario is reporting 1,571 new COVID-19 cases on Wednesday, bringing the provincial total to 333,690.

Wednesday’s case count is slightly higher than Tuesday’s which saw 1,546 new infections, however more tests were completed. On Monday, 1,699 new cases were recorded and 1,791 on Sunday.

According to Wednesday’s provincial report, 459 cases were recorded in Toronto, 309 in Peel Region, 143 in York Region, 89 in Ottawa, 86 in Durham Region and 84 in Hamilton.

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 7,263 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.

Of the variants detected so far in the province, the B.1.1.7 VOC is currently the dominating known strain at 1,389 variant cases, which is up by 30 since the previous day, 50 B.1.351 variant cases which is up by three, and 47 P.1 variant cases which is up by 10.

The cumulative case count for a mutation that was detected but the lineage was not determined was 14,803, the government indicated there was an increase of 909 cases in the last day.

Meanwhile, 311,380 Ontario residents were reported to have recovered from COVID-19, which is about 93 per cent of known cases. Resolved cases increased by 1,531 from the previous day.

Active cases in Ontario now stand at 15,047 — up from the previous day when it was at 15,017, and up from March 17 when it was at 12,512. At the peak of the coronavirus surge in January, active cases hit above 30,000.

The seven-day average has now reached 1,676, up from yesterday at 1,667, and is up from last week at 1,361. A month ago, the seven-day average was around 1,000.

The government said 51,962 tests were processed in the last 24 hours. There is currently a backlog of 38,985 tests awaiting results. A total of 12,198,355 tests have been completed since the start of the pandemic.

Test positivity — the percentage of tests that come back positive — for Wednesday was 3.8 per cent. That figure is down from Tuesday when it was at 5.7 per cent, but is up from last week when it was 3.5 per cent.

Ontario reported 893 people are hospitalized with COVID-19 (up by 25 from the previous day) with 333 patients in intensive care units (up by nine) and 210 patients in ICUs on a ventilator (up by 17).

As of 8 p.m. on Tuesday, the provincial government reported administering 1,676,150 COVID-19 vaccine doses, representing an increase of 72,451 in the last day which is the most vaccine doses given out in a single day so far. There are 302,664 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:

• 164,787 people are male — an increase of 808 cases.
• 167,040 people are female — an increase of 750 cases.
• 46,775 people are 19 and under — an increase of 327 cases.
• 122,315 people are 20 to 39 — an increase of 579 cases.
• 96,005 people are 40 to 59 — an increase of 422 cases.
• 47,474 people are 60 to 79 — an increase of 202 cases.
• 21,046 people are 80 and over — an increase of 45 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: 33
• Deaths reported in ages 40 to 59: 305
• Deaths reported in ages 60 to 79: 2,030
• Deaths reported in ages 80 and older: 4,892
• 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 from yesterday. Eleven virus-related deaths in total have been reported among staff.

There are 52 current outbreaks in homes, which is unchanged from the previous day.

The ministry also indicated there are currently 11 active cases among long-term care residents and 104 active cases among staff — up by one and up by five, 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 11,682 school-related COVID-19 cases in Ontario to date — 8,617 among students and 1,909 among staff (1,156 individuals were not identified). This is an increase of 257 more cases in the day — 209 student cases, 47 staff cases and one individual was not identified.

In the last 14 days, the province indicates there are 1,596 cases reported among students, 355 cases among staff and nine individuals were not identified — totaling 1,960 cases.

The COVID-19 cases are currently from 1,011 out of 4,828 schools in the province. Forty-three schools in Ontario are currently closed as a result of positive cases, the government indicated.

There have been a total of 3,362 confirmed cases within child care centres and homes — an increase of 74 (49 new child cases and 25 staff cases). Out of 5,279 child care centres in Ontario, 257 currently have cases and 56 centres are closed.

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