Ontario reports more than 4,800 new COVID-19 cases, setting another single-day record

Ontario is reporting 4,812 new COVID-19 cases on Friday, marking another single-day high for the second day in a row. The provincial total now stands at 408,383.

Friday’s case count surpassed Thursday’s which held the previous record of 4,736 new cases as the province continues to grapple with surging COVID-19 hospitalizations. In the past seven days, five of those saw daily case numbers above 4,000.

According to Friday’s report, 1,469 cases were recorded in Toronto, 851 in Peel Region, 491 in York Region, 366 in Ottawa, 268 in Durham Region and 204 in Hamilton.

All other local public health units reported fewer than 200 new cases in the provincial report.

The death toll in the province has risen to 7,664 as 25 more deaths were recorded.

Meanwhile, 360,742 Ontario residents were reported to have recovered from COVID-19, which is about 88 per cent of known cases. Resolved cases increased by 3,151 from the previous day.

Ontario reported a record 1,955 people are hospitalized with COVID-19 (up by 23 from the previous day) with an all-time high of 701 patients in intensive care units (up by 42) and 480 patients in ICUs on a ventilator (up by 38).

Active cases in Ontario now stand at 39,977 — up from the previous day when it was at 38,341, and up from April 9 when it was at 29,627. 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 4,292, up from yesterday at 4,208, and is up from last week at 3,256. A month ago, the seven-day average was around 1,300.

The government said 64,304 tests were processed in the last 24 hours. There is currently a backlog of 38,815 tests awaiting results. A total of 13,422,529 tests have been completed since the start of the pandemic.

Test positivity for Friday was 8.2 per cent. That figure is up from Thursday’s at 8 per cent, and is up from last week when it was 6.3 per cent.

As of 8 p.m. on Thursday, a total of 3,644,038 COVID-19 vaccine doses have been administered. That marks an increase of 115,634 vaccines in the last day which is the most vaccine administered in 24 hours. There are 341,933 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 30,175 variant cases, which is up by 2,897 since the previous day, 99 B.1.351 variant cases which is up by four, and 202 P.1 variant cases which is up by 11.

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

• 202,545 people are male — an increase of 2,415 cases.
• 203,474 people are female — an increase of 2,334 cases.
• 61,297 people are 19 and under — an increase of 831cases.
• 149,975 people are 20 to 39 — an increase of 1,890 cases.
• 117,502 people are 40 to 59 — an increase of 1,376 cases.
• 56,956 people are 60 to 79 — an increase of 616 cases.
• 22,558 people are 80 and over — an increase of 94 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: 39
• Deaths reported in ages 40 to 59: 334 (+2)
• Deaths reported in ages 60 to 79: 2,213 (+13)
• Deaths reported in ages 80 and older: 5,075 (+10)
• 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 38 current outbreaks in homes, which is down by two from the previous day.

The ministry also indicated there are currently 26 active cases among long-term care residents and 119 active cases among staff — up by four and down by two, respectively, in the last day.