Ontario reports 2,759 new COVID-19 cases, as total count surpasses 500,000

As the Ontario government reported 2,759 new COVID-19 cases on Thursday, it also marked a pivotal new milestone in its 15-month pandemic fight: cumulatively more than half a million tests — 502,171 — have come back positive for the virus.

When COVID-19 was declared a global pandemic in March 2020, Ontario’s first 100,000 cumulative cases were recorded on Nov. 20, then 200,000 cases on Jan. 6, then 300,000 cases on Feb. 28, and 400,000 cases on April 15.

The last 100,000 cases to today’s date took just shy of one month (28 days) to reach as the province grappled with a third wave that saw record cases and hospitalizations.

However, Thursday’s case count is higher than Wednesday’s which saw 2,320 new infections. On Tuesday, 2,073 were recorded and 2,716 on Monday. It is also the fourth day in a row cases are below 3,000 as Ontario continues to see a downward trend with active cases and the seven-day average declining.

According to Thursday’s report, 774 cases were recorded in Toronto, 602 in Peel Region, 258 in York Region, 147 in Durham Region, 133 in Hamilton, 110 in Halton Region. 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 8,405 as 31 more deaths were recorded.

Meanwhile, 464,531 Ontario residents were reported to have recovered from COVID-19, which is about 92 per cent of known cases. Resolved cases increased by 3,455 from the previous day.

There were more resolved cases than new cases on Thursday.

Active cases in Ontario now stand at 29,235 — down from the previous day when it was at 29,962, and is down from May 6 when it was at 34,377. 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 2,731, which is down from yesterday at 2,826, and is down from last week at 3,369. A month ago, the seven-day average was around 3,800.

The government said 47,638 tests were processed in the last 24 hours. There is currently a backlog of 24,365 tests awaiting results. A total of 14,651,044  tests have been completed since the start of the pandemic.

Test positivity for Thursday was 5.7 per cent. That figure is down from Wednesday’s at 6.4 per cent, and is down from last week when it was 6.8 per cent.

Ontario reported 1,632 people are hospitalized with COVID-19 (down by 41 from the previous day) with 776 patients in intensive care units (unchanged) and 568 patients in ICUs on a ventilator (up by 9).

As of 8 p.m. on Wednesday, more than 6.6 million COVID-19 vaccine doses have been administered. That marks an increase of 137,697 vaccines in the last day. There are 407,600 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 101,232 variant cases, which is up by 2,737 since the previous day, 574 B.1.351 variant cases which is up by six, and 1,727 P.1 variant cases which is up by 44.

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

• 249,730 people are male — an increase of 1,373 cases.
• 248,473 people are female — an increase of 1,356 cases.
• 78,488 people are 19 and under — an increase of 538 cases.
• 186,753 people are 20 to 39 — an increase of 1,125 cases.
• 144,673 people are 40 to 59 — an increase of 781 cases.
• 67,979 people are 60 to 79 — an increase of 275 cases.
• 24,169 people are 80 and over — an increase of 40 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: 59 (-1 — one death was removed)
• Deaths reported in ages 40 to 59: 438 (+6)
• Deaths reported in ages 60 to 79: 2,548 (+16)
• Deaths reported in ages 80 and older: 5,355 (+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 3,764 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 41 current outbreaks in homes, which is down by two from the previous day.

The ministry also indicated there are currently 66 active cases among long-term care residents and 149 active cases among staff — up by one and down by eight, respectively, in the last day.