Ontario reports more than 3,600 new COVID-19 cases, 15 deaths

Ontario is reporting 3,670 new COVID-19 cases on Tuesday, bringing the provincial total to 394,679.

Tuesday’s case count is a significant drop from Monday’s which saw 4,401 new infections. On Sunday, a record breaking 4,456 new cases were recorded.

According to Tuesday’s provincial report, 1,016 cases were recorded in Toronto, 613 in Peel Region, 519 in York Region, 214 in Ottawa, 196 in Durham Region, 161 in Hamilton, and 157 in Halton Region.

All other local public health units reported fewer than 150 new cases in the provincial report.

The death toll in the province has risen to 7,582 as 15 more deaths were recorded.

Meanwhile, 351,257 Ontario residents were reported to have recovered from COVID-19, which is about 89 per cent of known cases. Resolved cases increased by 2,573 from the previous day.

Ontario reported 1,822 people are hospitalized with COVID-19 (up by 176 from the previous day) with an all-time high of 626 patients in intensive care units (up by seven) and 422 patients in ICUs on a ventilator (up by 14).

Active cases in Ontario now stand at 35,840 — up from the previous day when it was at 34,758, and up from April 6 when it was at 26,568. At the peak of the second wave coronavirus surge in January, active cases hit just above 30,000.

The seven-day average has now reached 3,868, up from yesterday at 3,782, and is up from last week at 2,862. A month ago, the seven-day average was around 1,300.

The government said 42,167 tests were processed in the last 24 hours. There is currently a backlog of 35,679 tests awaiting results. A total of 13,238,455 tests have been completed since the start of the pandemic.

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Test positivity for Tuesday was 10.3 per cent, the highest rate recorded amid the second and third waves. That figure is up from Monday’s at 9.5 per cent, and is up from last week when it was 8.9 per cent.

As of 8 p.m. on Monday, the provincial government reported administering 3,310,157 total COVID-19 vaccine doses. That marks an increase of 95,692 vaccines in the last day. There are 335,262 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 20,487 variant cases, which is up by 3,947 since the previous day, 81 B.1.351 variant cases which is unchanged, and 143 P.1 variant cases which is up by three.

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

• 195,615 people are male — an increase of 1,896 cases.
• 196,786 people are female — an increase of 1,754 cases.
• 58,817 people are 19 and under — an increase of 721 cases.
• 144,876 people are 20 to 39 — an increase of 1,344 cases.
• 113,447 people are 40 to 59 — an increase of 1,075 cases.
• 55,155 people are 60 to 79 — an increase of 459 cases.
• 22,294 people are 80 and over — an increase of 72 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: 37
• Deaths reported in ages 40 to 59: 329
• Deaths reported in ages 60 to 79: 2,176
• Deaths reported in ages 80 and older: 5,037
• 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 36 current outbreaks in homes, which is down by five from the previous day.

The ministry also indicated there are currently 21 active cases among long-term care residents and 115 active cases among staff — down by three and down by five, respectively, in the last day.