Ontario reports more than 2,300 new COVID-19 cases, 26 deaths

Ontario is reporting 2,362 new COVID-19 cases on Friday. The provincial total now stands at 504,533.

Friday’s case count is lower than Thursday’s which saw 2,759 new infections. On Wednesday, 2,320 were recorded and 2,073 on Tuesday. It is also the fifth day in a row cases are below 3,000.

According to Friday’s report, 691 cases were recorded in Toronto, 563 in Peel Region, 224 in York Region, 148 in Durham Region and 112 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 8,431 as 26 more deaths were recorded.

Meanwhile, 468,033 Ontario residents were reported to have recovered from COVID-19, which is about 93 per cent of known cases. Resolved cases increased by 3,502 from the previous day.

There were more resolved cases than new cases on Friday.

Active cases in Ontario now stand at 28,069 — down from the previous day when it was at 29,235, and is down from May 7 when it was at 33,645. 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 2,616, which is down from yesterday at 2,731, and is down from last week at 3,266. A month ago, the seven-day average was around 4,000.

The government said 44,040 tests were processed in the last 24 hours. There is currently a backlog of 22,237 tests awaiting results. A total of 14,695,084 tests have been completed since the start of the pandemic.

Test positivity for Friday was 6.1 per cent. That figure is up from Thursday’s at 5.7 per cent, but is down from last week when it was 7 per cent.

Ontario reported 1,582 people are hospitalized with COVID-19 (down by 50 from the previous day) with 777 patients in intensive care units (up by one) and 560 patients in ICUs on a ventilator (down by 8).

As of 8 p.m. on Thursday, more than 6.7 million COVID-19 vaccine doses have been administered. That marks an increase of 141,765 vaccines in the last day. There are 415,531 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 103,864 variant cases, which is up by 2,632 since the previous day, 594 B.1.351 variant cases which is up by 20, and 1,746 P.1 variant cases which is up by 19.

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

• 250,921 people are male — an increase of 1,191 cases.
• 249,598 people are female — an increase of 1,125 cases.
• 78,910 people are 19 and under — an increase of 422 cases.
• 187,759 people are 20 to 39 — an increase of 1,006 cases.
• 145,316 people are 40 to 59 — an increase of 643 cases.
• 68,231 people are 60 to 79 — an increase of 252 cases.
• 24,209 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: 62 (+3)
• Deaths reported in ages 40 to 59: 445 (+7)
• Deaths reported in ages 60 to 79: 2,560 (+12)
• Deaths reported in ages 80 and older: 5,359 (+4)
• 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 3,765deaths reported among residents and patients in long-term care homes across Ontario which is an increase of one death since yesterday.

Thirteen virus-related deaths in total have been reported among staff, an increase of two deaths.

There are 36 current outbreaks in homes, which is down by five from the previous day.

The ministry also indicated there are currently 57 active cases among long-term care residents and 120 active cases among staff — down by nine and down by 29, respectively, in the last day.