Ontario reports more than 2,000 coronavirus cases for 4th straight day

Ontario reported 2,448 cases of the novel coronavirus Sunday, bringing the total number of cases in the province to 343,140.

This marks the fourth day in a row that the province has reported more than 2,000 cases. On Saturday, 2,453 cases were reported, which was the largest single-day increase in more than two months.

“Locally, there are 780 new cases in Toronto, 356 in Peel, 278 in York Region, 219 in Durham and 150 in Ottawa,” Health Minister Christine Elliott said.

A total of 317,408 COVID-19 cases are considered resolved, which is up by 1,543 and is 92.5 per cent of all confirmed cases.

Nineteen new deaths were also reported on Sunday, bringing the provincial death toll to 7,327.

More than 50,200 additional tests were completed. Ontario has now completed a total of 12,423,100 tests and 25,452 are under investigation.

The province indicated that the positivity rate for the last day was 4.5 per cent, which is the same as Saturday’s report, and is up from last Sunday’s report when it was 3.7 per cent.

There have been 1,625 confirmed cases of the B.1.1.7 variant, first discovered in the U.K. (up by 102), as well as 63 of the B.1.351 variant which was discovered in South Africa (no change), and 67 cases of the P.1 variant, first found in Brazil (up by six).

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There have been 18,322 other COVID-19 cases that have screened positive for a virus mutation, which is up by 711.

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Provincial figures showed there are 917 people hospitalized with the virus (down by 68), with 366 in intensive care (up by one), 217 of whom are on a ventilator (up by 25).

However, the province noted that more than 10 per cent of hospitals did not submit their daily bed census for Sunday’s report — as is often the case on weekends — possibly causing the reported number of hospitalizations to be lower than it actually is.

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Here is a breakdown of Ontario’s cases by age and gender:

• 169,587 people are male
• 171,638 people are female
• 48,727 people are 19 and under
• 125,786 people are 20 to 39
• 98,656 people are 40 to 59
• 48,621 people are 60 to 79
• 21,274 people are 80 and over

The province notes that not all cases have a reported age or gender.

The province also notes that the number of cases publicly reported each day may not align with case counts reported by local public health units on a given day. Local public health units report when they were first notified of a case, which can be updated and changed as information becomes available. Data may also be pulled at different times.

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 has remained unchanged since March 19. There are currently 50 outbreaks in long-term care homes, 45 of which are reported to have no resident cases.

There are 9 active cases among long-term care residents and 115 among staff.

As of 8 p.m. Saturday, 1,981,282 COVID-19 vaccine doses had been administered in Ontario, marking an increase of 64,950 over 24 hours.

So far, 309,285 people in the province are considered to be fully vaccinated.