Ontario reports more than 2,700 new COVID-19 cases, 19 deaths

Ontario is reporting 2,716 new COVID-19 cases on Monday. The provincial total now stands at 495,019.

Monday’s case count is lower than Sunday’s which saw 3,216 new infections. On Saturday, 2,864 new cases were recorded and 3,166 on Friday. It is also the lowest increase in daily cases since April 1 but Monday’s testing was quite low.

According to Monday’s report, 807 cases were recorded in Toronto, 707 in Peel Region, 294 in York Region, 168 in Durham Region and 106 in Hamilton.

All other local public health units reported fewer than 100 new cases in the provincial report.

The death toll in the province has risen to 8,327 as 19 more deaths were recorded.

Meanwhile, 454,701 Ontario residents were reported to have recovered from COVID-19, which is about 92 per cent of known cases. Resolved cases increased by 3,110 from the previous day.

There were more resolved cases than new cases on Monday.

Active cases in Ontario now stand at 31,991 — down from the previous day when it was at 32,404, and is down from May 3 when it was at 36,997. 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 3,017, down from yesterday at 3,120, and is down from last week at 3,577. A month ago, the seven-day average was around 3,400.

The government said 27,175 tests were processed in the last 24 hours, the fewest number of tests completed since the end of February. There is currently a backlog of 12,837 tests awaiting results. A total of 14,529,616 tests have been completed since the start of the pandemic.

Test positivity for Monday was 9.1 per cent. That figure is up from Sunday’s at 7.1 per cent, but is down from last week when it was 9.7 per cent.

Ontario reported 1,632 people are hospitalized with COVID-19 (down by eight from the previous day) with 828 patients in intensive care units (down by 20) and 547 patients in ICUs on a ventilator (down 33).

As of 8 p.m. on Sunday, a total of 6,238,778 COVID-19 vaccine doses have been administered. That marks an increase of 94,093 vaccines in the last day. There are 393,884 people fully vaccinated with two doses.

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 93,263 variant cases, which is up by 1,639 since the previous day, 511 B.1.351 variant cases which is up by 111, and 1,558 P.1 variant cases which is up by 329.

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

• 246,068 people are male — an increase of 1,349 cases.
• 245,106 people are female — an increase of 1,293 cases.
• 77,181 people are 19 and under — an increase of 544 cases.
• 183,784 people are 20 to 39 — an increase of 1,112 cases.
• 142,661 people are 40 to 59 — an increase of 741 cases.
• 67,232 people are 60 to 79 — an increase of 271 cases.
• 24,052 people are 80 and over — an increase of 50 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: 4
• Deaths reported in ages 20 to 39: 57
• Deaths reported in ages 40 to 59: 427 (+6)
• Deaths reported in ages 60 to 79: 2,508 (+10)
• Deaths reported in ages 80 and older: 5,330 (+3)
• 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 3,762 deaths reported among residents and patients in long-term care homes across Ontario which is unchanged. Eleven virus-related deaths in total have been reported among staff.

There are 45 current outbreaks in homes, which is down by one from the previous day.

The ministry also indicated there are currently 67 active cases among long-term care residents and 155 active cases among staff — down by three and down by six, respectively, in the last day.