Ontario reports nearly 2,100 new COVID-19 cases, 10 deaths

Ontario is reporting 2,094 new COVID-19 cases on Monday, the fifth straight day cases are above 2,000, bringing the provincial total to 345,234.

Monday’s case count is lower than Sunday’s which saw 2,448 new infections. On Saturday 2,453 new cases were recorded which was the highest single-day increase in over two months and 2,169 on Friday.

According to Monday’s provincial report, 618 cases were recorded in Toronto, 368 in Peel Region, 277 in York Region, 132 in Ottawa, 104 in Durham Region and 74 in Halton 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 7,337 as 10 more deaths were recorded.

Meanwhile, 318,932 Ontario residents were reported to have recovered from COVID-19, which is about 92 per cent of known cases. Resolved cases increased by 1,524 from the previous day.

Active cases in Ontario now stand at 18,965 — up from the previous day when it was at 18,405, and up from March 22 when it was at 14,751. At the peak of the coronavirus surge in January, active cases hit above 30,000.

The seven-day average has now reached 2,094, up from yesterday at 2,038, and is up from last week at 1,600. A month ago, the seven-day average was around 1,100.

The government said 39,470 tests were processed in the last 24 hours. There is currently a backlog of 17,716 tests awaiting results. A total of 12,462,570 tests have been completed since the start of the pandemic.

Test positivity — the percentage of tests that come back positive — for Monday was 6.1 per cent which is the highest number since mid-January. That figure is up from Sunday when it was 4.5, and is up from last week when it was 5.4 per cent.

Ontario reported 841 people are hospitalized with COVID-19 (down by 76 from the previous day) with 382 in intensive care units (up by 16) and 236 patients in ICUs on a ventilator (up by 19).

As of 8 p.m. on Sunday, the provincial government reported administering 2,031,735 total COVID-19 vaccine doses, representing an increase of 50,453 in the last day. There are 311,248 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.

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), P.1 (first detected in Brazil), as well as mutations that have no determined lineage.

Of the variants detected so far in the province, the B.1.1.7 VOC is currently the dominating known strain at 1,749 variant cases, which is up by 124 since the previous day, 60 B.1.351 variant cases which is unchanged, and 82 P.1 variant cases which is up by 15.

The total case count for a mutation that was detected but the lineage was not determined was 18,907, an increase of 585 cases in the last day.

Here is a breakdown of the total cases in Ontario by gender and age:

• 170,671 people are male — an increase of 1,084 cases.
• 172,637 people are female — an increase of 999 cases.
• 49,152 people are 19 and under — an increase of 425 cases.
• 126,517 people are 20 to 39 — an increase of 731 cases.
• 99,256 people are 40 to 59 — an increase of 600 cases.
• 48,914 people are 60 to 79 — an increase of 293 cases.
• 21,317 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: 33
• Deaths reported in ages 40 to 59: 312
• Deaths reported in ages 60 to 79: 2,063
• Deaths reported in ages 80 and older: 4,925
• 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 54 current outbreaks in homes, which is an increase of four from the previous day.

The ministry also indicated there are currently nine active cases among long-term care residents and 119 active cases among staff — unchanged and up by four, 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 12,237 school-related COVID-19 cases in Ontario to date — 9,053 among students and 2,021 among staff (1,163 individuals were not identified). This is an increase of 215 more cases within a 24-hour period — 170 student cases and 45 staff cases.

In the last 14 days, the province indicates there are 1,738 cases reported among students, 385 cases among staff and six individuals were not identified — totaling 2,129 cases.

The COVID-19 cases are currently from 1,116 out of 4,828 schools in the province which is 23 per cent of schools. Forty-seven schools in Ontario are currently closed as a result of positive cases, the government indicated.

There have been a total of 3,493 confirmed cases within child care centres and homes — an increase of 36 (24 new child cases and 12 staff cases). Out of 5,279 child care centres in Ontario, 282 currently have cases and 62 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.