Ontario reports 1,588 new COVID-19 cases, 2nd day in a row cases are below 2,000

Ontario is reporting 1,588 new COVID-19 cases on Wednesday. The provincial total now stands at 514,690.

It is the lowest daily case count since late March and is the second straight day cases are under 2,000. On Tuesday, 1,616 new cases were recorded and 2,170 on Monday.

According to Wednesday’s report, 524 cases were recorded in Toronto, 335 in Peel Region, 105 in Ottawa and 94 in York Region.

All other local public health units reported fewer than 90 new cases in the provincial report.

The death toll in the province has risen to 8,525 as 19 more deaths were recorded.

Meanwhile, 482,749 Ontario residents were reported to have recovered from COVID-19, which is about 93 per cent of known cases. Resolved cases increased by 3,119 from the previous day.

There were more resolved cases than new cases on Wednesday.

Active cases in Ontario now stand at 23,416 — down from the previous day when it was at 24,966, and is down from May 12 when it was at 29,962. 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 2,183, which is down from yesterday at 2,287, and is down from last week at 2,826. A month ago, the seven-day average was around 4,300.

The government said 38,422 tests were processed in the last 24 hours. There is currently a backlog of 26,091 tests awaiting results. A total of 14,856,381 tests have been completed since the start of the pandemic.

Test positivity for Wednesday was 5.2 per cent. That figure is down from Tuesday’s at 7.6 per cent, and is down from last week when it was 6.4 per cent.

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Ontario reported 1,401 people are hospitalized with COVID-19 (down by 83 from the previous day) with 735 patients in intensive care units (down by 29) and 539 patients in ICUs on a ventilator (down by 20). Overall, hospitalizations have been on the decline since the third wave peak in April.

As of 8 p.m. on Tuesday, more than 7.4 million COVID-19 vaccine doses have been administered. That marks an increase of 145,461 vaccines in the last day. There are 456,784 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 112,759 variant cases, which is up by 1,803 since the previous day, 683 B.1.351 variant cases which is up by two, and 2,059 P.1 variant cases which is up by 28.

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

• 256,048 people are male — an increase of 829 cases.
• 254,555 people are female — an increase of 743 cases.
• 80,965 people are 19 and under — an increase of 304 cases.
• 191,983 people are 20 to 39 — an increase of 633 cases.
• 148,001 people are 40 to 59 — an increase of 447 cases.
• 69,240 people are 60 to 79 — an increase of 173 cases.
• 24,401 people are 80 and over — an increase of 34 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 (+2)
• Deaths reported in ages 40 to 59: 462 (+5)
• Deaths reported in ages 60 to 79: 2,599 (+4)
• Deaths reported in ages 80 and older: 5,394 (+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 3,766 deaths reported among residents and patients in long-term care homes across Ontario which is unchanged since yesterday. Thirteen virus-related deaths in total have been reported among staff.

There are 35 current outbreaks in homes, which is unchanged from the previous day.

The ministry also indicated there are currently 44 active cases among long-term care residents and 99 active cases among staff — up by five and up by one, respectively, in the last day.