Ontario reports record number of new coronavirus cases

Ontario reported 4,456 coronavirus cases on Sunday, bringing the total number of cases in the province to 386,608.

It marks the largest single-day increase in COVID-19 cases in Ontario since the pandemic began.

“Locally, there are 1,353 new cases in Toronto, 860 in Peel, 444 in York Region, 377 in Ottawa and 329 in Durham,” Health Minister Christine Elliott said.

Twenty-one new deaths were also reported, bringing the provincial death toll to 7,552.

A total of 346,239 COVID-19 cases are considered resolved, which is up by 2,617 and is 89.6 per cent of all confirmed cases.

Nearly 56,400 additional tests were completed. Ontario has now completed a total of 13,148,359 tests and 31,836 remain under investigation.

The province indicated that the positivity rate for the last day was 7.7 per cent, which is up from Saturday’s report, when it was 6.5 per cent, and up from last Sunday’s report, when it was 6.5 per cent as well.

There have been 14,387 confirmed cases of the B.1.1.7 variant, first discovered in the U.K. (up by 1,174), as well as 78 of the B.1.351 variant which was discovered in South Africa (up by two), and 134 cases of the P.1 variant, first found in Brazil (no change).

Provincial figures showed there are 1,513 people hospitalized with the virus (down by 11), with 605 in intensive care (up by 20 and marking a pandemic high), 382 of whom are on a ventilator (down by two).

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:

• 191,560 people are male
• 192,801 people are female
• 57,238 people are 19 and under
• 141,931 people are 20 to 39
• 111,069 people are 40 to 59
• 54,129 people are 60 to 79
• 22,151 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.

As of Saturday evening, 3,139,743 COVID-19 vaccine doses had been administered in Ontario, marking an increase of 94,794.

So far, 333,150 people in the province are considered to be fully vaccinated.

8:39 180,000 businesses could close their doors forever: CFIB