Ontario reports 2,400 new COVID-19 cases, 27 deaths

Ontario is reporting 2,400 new COVID-19 cases on Thursday. The provincial total now stands at 517,090.

Thursday’s case count has jumped back above 2,000 after the previous two days saw daily cases under that mark. However, the number of tests processed was higher than the last two days. On Wednesday, 1,588 new cases were recorded with 1,616 on Tuesday, and 2,170 on Monday.

According to Thursday’s report, 607 cases were recorded in Toronto, 528 in Peel Region, 224 in Hamilton, 181 in York Region, and 110 in Durham Region.

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 8,552 as 27 more deaths were recorded.

Meanwhile, 485,512 Ontario residents were reported to have recovered from COVID-19, which is about 94 per cent of known cases. Resolved cases increased by 2,763 from the previous day.

There were more resolved cases than new cases on Thursday.

Active cases in Ontario now stand at 23,026 — down from the previous day when it was at 23,416, and is down from May 13 when it was at 29,235. 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 2,131, which is down from yesterday at 2,183, and is down from last week at 2,731. A month ago, the seven-day average was around 4,300.

The government said 45,406 tests were processed in the last 24 hours. There is currently a backlog of 20,642 tests awaiting results. A total of 14,901,787 tests have been completed since the start of the pandemic.

Test positivity for Thursday was 5.2 per cent. That figure is the same as Wednesday’s at 5.2 per cent, but is down from last week when it was 5.7 per cent.

Ontario reported 1,320 people are hospitalized with COVID-19 (down by 81 from the previous day) with 721 patients in intensive care units (down by 14) and 493 patients in ICUs on a ventilator (down by 46). Overall, hospitalizations have been on the decline since the third wave peak in April.

As of 8 p.m. on Wednesday, more than 7.5 million COVID-19 vaccine doses have been administered. That marks an increase of 144,986 vaccines in the last day. There are 473,759 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 114,569 variant cases, which is up by 1,810 since the previous day, 684 B.1.351 variant cases which is up by one, and 2,089 P.1 variant cases which is up by 30.

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

• 257,213 people are male — an increase of 1,165 cases.
• 255,740 people are female — an increase of 1,185 cases.
• 81,459 people are 19 and under — an increase of 494 cases.
• 192,964 people are 20 to 39 — an increase of 981 cases.
• 148,629 people are 40 to 59 — an increase of 628 cases.
• 69,481 people are 60 to 79 — an increase of 241 cases.
• 24,458 people are 80 and over — an increase of 57 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: 65
• Deaths reported in ages 40 to 59: 465 (+3)
• Deaths reported in ages 60 to 79: 2,614 (+15)
• Deaths reported in ages 80 and older: 5,403 (+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 3,767 deaths 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.

There are 37 current outbreaks in homes, which is up by two from the previous day.

The ministry also indicated there are currently 52 active cases among long-term care residents 101 99 active cases among staff — up by eight and up by two, respectively, in the last day.