Ontario is reporting 2,320 new COVID-19 cases on Wednesday. The provincial total now stands at 499,412.
Wednesday’s case count is higher than Tuesday’s which saw 2,073 new infections. On Monday, 2,716 new cases were recorded and 3,216 on Sunday.
According to Wednesday’s report, 712 cases were recorded in Toronto, 452 in Peel Region, 157 in York Region, 139 in Durham Region, 113 in Hamilton and 105 in Ottawa.
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 8,374 as 32 more deaths were recorded.
Meanwhile, 461,076 Ontario residents were reported to have recovered from COVID-19, which is about 92 per cent of known cases. Resolved cases increased by 3,477 from the previous day.
There were more resolved cases than new cases on Wednesday.
Active cases in Ontario now stand at 29,962 — down from the previous day when it was at 31,151, and is down from May 5 when it was at 34,976. At the peak of the second wave coronavirus surge in January, active cases hit just above 30,000. In the third wave in April, active cases topped 43,000.
The seven-day average has now reached 2,826, which is down from yesterday at 2,914, and is down from last week at 3,509. A month ago, the seven-day average was around 3,800.
The government said 45,681 tests were processed in the last 24 hours. There is currently a backlog of 28,174 tests awaiting results. A total of 14,603,406 tests have been completed since the start of the pandemic.
Test positivity for Wednesday was 6.4 per cent. That figure is down from Tuesday’s at 8.5 per cent, and is down from last week when it was 6.6 per cent.
Ontario reported 1,673 people are hospitalized with COVID-19 (down by 109 from the previous day) with 776 patients in intensive care units (down by 26) and 559 patients in ICUs on a ventilator (down by 9). People in ICUs have steadily been on the decline since the beginning of May.
As of 8 p.m. on Tuesday, nearly 6.5 million COVID-19 vaccine doses have been administered. That marks an increase of 140,785 vaccines in the last day. There are 402,258 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 98,495 variant cases, which is up by 2,949 since the previous day, 568 B.1.351 variant cases which is up by 38, and 1,683 P.1 variant cases which is up by 91.
Here is a breakdown of the total cases in Ontario by gender and age:
- 248,357 people are male — an increase of 1,228 cases.
- 247,117 people are female — an increase of 1,048 cases.
- 77,950 people are 19 and under — an increase of 390 cases.
- 185,628 people are 20 to 39 — an increase of 983 cases.
- 143,892 people are 40 to 59 — an increase of 659 cases.
- 67,704 people are 60 to 79 — an increase of 252 cases.
- 24,129 people are 80 and over — an increase of 35 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: 60 (+1)
- Deaths reported in ages 40 to 59: 432 (+5)
- Deaths reported in ages 60 to 79: 2,532 (+18)
- Deaths reported in ages 80 and older: 5,345 (+8)
- 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 3,764 deaths reported among residents and patients in long-term care homes across Ontario which is unchanged since yesterday. Eleven virus-related deaths in total have been reported among staff.
There are 43 current outbreaks in homes, which is down by three from the previous day.
The ministry also indicated there are currently 65 active cases among long-term care residents and 167 active cases among staff — down by four for both in the last day.