Ontario reports nearly 3,300 COVID-19 cases, 19 deaths

Ontario is reporting 3,295 new COVID-19 cases on Thursday, bringing the provincial total to 374,112.

Thursday’s case count is higher than Wednesday’s which saw 3,215 new infections. On Tuesday, 3,065 new cases were recorded and 2,938 on Monday. It also marks the highest daily increase since Jan. 17.

According to Thursday’s provincial report, 933 cases were recorded in Toronto, 649 in Peel Region, 386 in York Region, 165 in Durham Region, 160 in Ottawa, 156 in Halton Region and 125 in Middlesex-London.

All other local public health units reported fewer than 125 new cases in the provincial report.

The death toll in the province has risen to 7,494 as 19 more deaths were recorded.

Meanwhile, 338,559 Ontario residents were reported to have recovered from COVID-19, which is about 90 per cent of known cases. Resolved cases increased by 2,576 from the previous day.

Active cases in Ontario now stand at 28,059 — up from the previous day when it was at 27,359, and up from April 1 when it was at 20,875. At the peak of the coronavirus surge in January, active cases hit above 30,000.

The seven-day average has now reached 3,093, up from yesterday at 2,988, and is up from last week at 2,341. A month ago, the seven-day average was around 1,200.

The government said 63,846 tests were processed in the last 24 hours. There is currently a backlog of 42,404 tests awaiting results. A total of 12,966,264 tests have been completed since the start of the pandemic.

Test positivity for Thursday’s was six per cent. That figure is down from Wednesday’s at 6.7 per cent, but is up from last week when it was 4.8 per cent.

Ontario reported 1,417 people are hospitalized with COVID-19 (up by 20 from the previous day) with 525 in intensive care units (up by 21) and 331 patients in ICUs on a ventilator (up by 20).

Patients with COVID-19 in ICUs have hit the highest level seen so far in the pandemic.

As of 8 p.m. on Wednesday, the provincial government reported administering 2,726,221 total COVID-19 vaccine doses. That marks an increase of 108,563 vaccines in the last day, a single-day high as the province administered more than 100,000 vaccines in 24 hours two days in a row. There are 324,148 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. J & J vaccines have not yet arrived in Canada.

Variants of concern in Ontario

Officials have listed breakdown data for the new VOCs (variants of concern) detected so far in the province 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.

The B.1.1.7 VOC is currently the dominating known strain at 9,632 variant cases, which is up by 1,317 since the previous day, 75 B.1.351 variant cases which is up by three, and 131 P.1 variant cases which is up by 11.

The total case count for a mutation that was detected but the lineage was not determined was 23,130, an increase of 287 cases in the last day.

On Thursday, Ontario updated the way they report variant data including indicating some case data for previous mutations are presumed to be the B.1.1.7. Other mutations previously indicated as one number, were broken down further.

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

• 185,223 people are male — an increase of 1,705 cases.
• 186,723 people are female — an increase of 1,589 cases.
• 54,931 people are 19 and under — an increase of 602 cases.
• 137,177 people are 20 to 39 — an increase of 1,280 cases.
• 107,479 people are 40 to 59 — an increase of 953 cases.
• 52,501 people are 60 to 79 — an increase of 399 cases.
• 21,941 people are 80 and over — an increase of 68 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: 34
• Deaths reported in ages 40 to 59: 321
• Deaths reported in ages 60 to 79: 2,138
• Deaths reported in ages 80 and older: 4,998
• 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 3,755 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 49 current outbreaks in homes, which is down by three from the previous day.

The ministry also indicated there are currently 10 active cases among long-term care residents and 119 active cases among staff — up by one for both 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 14,478 school-related COVID-19 cases in Ontario to date — 10,909 among students and 2,410 among staff (1,159 individuals were not identified).

This is an increase of 301 more cases in the last day — 245 student cases and 56 staff cases.

In the last 14 days, the province indicates there are 2,133 cases reported among students, 455 cases among staff and four individuals were not identified — totaling 2,592 cases.

The COVID-19 cases are currently from 1,294 out of 4,828 schools in the province which is 27 per cent of schools. All schools in Toronto, Guelph and Peel Region are closed.

There have been a total of 4,155 confirmed cases within child care centres and homes — an increase of 152 (89 new child cases and 63 staff cases). Out of 5,282 child care centres in Ontario, 414 currently have cases and 121 centres are closed.

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