Ontario reports more than 2,100 new COVID-19 cases, 12 deaths

Ontario is reporting 2,169 new COVID-19 cases on Friday, bringing the provincial total to 338,239.

Friday’s case count is lower than Thursday’s which saw 2,380 new infections although about 280 of those cases were older. On Wednesday, 1,571 new cases were recorded and 1,546 on Tuesday.

According to Friday’s provincial report, 682 cases were recorded in Toronto, 379 in Peel Region, 254 in York Region, 129 in Ottawa, 123 in Durham Region and 122 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 7,292 as 12 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 1,494 variant cases, which is up by 36 since the previous day, 60 B.1.351 variant cases which is up by nine, and 58 P.1 variant cases which is up by four.

The cumulative case count for a mutation that was detected but the lineage was not determined was 16,680, the government indicated there was an increase of 1,023 cases in the last day.

Meanwhile, 314,384 Ontario residents were reported to have recovered from COVID-19, which is about 93 per cent of known cases. Resolved cases increased by 1,675 from the previous day.

Active cases in Ontario now stand at 16,563 — up from the previous day when it was at 16,081, and up from March 19 when it was at 13,253. At the peak of the coronavirus surge in January, active cases hit above 30,000.

The seven-day average has now reached 1,855, up from yesterday at 1,794, and is up from last week at 1,480. A month ago, the seven-day average was around 1,100.

The government said 53,436 tests were processed in the last 24 hours. There is currently a backlog of 37,364 tests awaiting results. A total of 12,311,868 tests have been completed since the start of the pandemic.

Test positivity — the percentage of tests that come back positive — for Friday was 3.8 per cent. That figure is the same as Thursday, and is up from last week when it was 3.3 per cent.

Ontario reported 913 people are hospitalized with COVID-19 (up by 19 from the previous day) with 359 patients in intensive care units (up by 27) and 215 patients in ICUs on a ventilator (up by three).

As of 8 p.m. on Thursday, the provincial government reported administering 1,838,592 COVID-19 vaccine doses, representing an increase of 82,996 in the last day. There are 306,373 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:

• 167,086 people are male — an increase of 1,089 cases.
• 169,257 people are female — an increase of 1,056 cases.
• 47,750 people are 19 and under — an increase of 476 cases.
• 123,963 people are 20 to 39 — an increase of 814 cases.
• 97,272 people are 40 to 59 — an increase of 548 cases.
• 48,030 people are 60 to 79 — an increase of 276 cases.
• 21,150 people are 80 and over — an increase of 55 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: 309
• Deaths reported in ages 60 to 79: 2,046
• Deaths reported in ages 80 and older: 4,901
• 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 45 current outbreaks in homes, which is a decrease of one from the previous day.

The ministry also indicated there are currently eight active cases among long-term care residents and 101 active cases among staff — unchanged and up by six, 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 12,017 school-related COVID-19 cases in Ontario to date — 8,883 among students and 1,978 among staff (1,156 individuals were not identified). This is an increase of 167more cases in the day — 138 student cases and 29 staff cases.

In the last 14 days, the province indicates there are 1,661 cases reported among students, 361 cases among staff and nine individuals were not identified — totaling 2,031 cases.

The COVID-19 cases are currently from 1,053 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 3,458 confirmed cases within child care centres and homes — an increase of 50 (37 new child cases and 13 staff cases). Out of 5,279 child care centres in Ontario, 272 currently have cases and 65 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.