Ontario reports 1,890 new COVID-19 cases as province hits daily high of 158K vaccinations

Ontario is reporting 1,890 new COVID-19 cases on Friday. The provincial total now stands at 518,980.

Friday’s case count has dipped back below 2,000 after Thursday saw 2,400 new cases. On Wednesday, 1,588 new cases were recorded and 1,616 on Tuesday,

According to Friday’s report, 469 cases were recorded in Toronto, 468 in Peel Region, 165 in York Region, 111 in Hamilton and 107 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 8,579 as 27 more deaths were recorded.

As of 8 p.m. on Thursday, more than 7.7 million COVID-19 vaccine doses have been administered. That marks an increase of 158,524 vaccines in the last day, a new daily record for vaccinations. There are 495,757 people fully vaccinated with two doses.

Meanwhile, 488,201 Ontario residents were reported to have recovered from COVID-19, which is about 94 per cent of known cases. Resolved cases increased by 2,689 from the previous day.

There were more resolved cases than new cases on Friday.

Active cases in Ontario now stand at 22,200 — down from the previous day when it was at 23,026, and is down from May 14 when it was at 28,069. 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 2,064, which is down from yesterday at 2,131, and is down from last week at 2,616. A month ago, the seven-day average was around 4,300.

The government said 37,126 tests were processed in the last 24 hours. There is currently a backlog of 19.891 tests awaiting results. A total of 14,938,913 tests have been completed since the start of the pandemic.

Test positivity for Friday was 5.4 per cent. That figure is slightly up from Thursday’s at 5.2 per cent, but is down from last week when it was 6.1 per cent.

Ontario reported 1,265 people are hospitalized with COVID-19 (down by 55 from the previous day) with 715 patients in intensive care units (down by six) and 510 patients in ICUs on a ventilator (up by 17). Overall, hospitalizations have been on the decline since the third wave peak in April.

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 115,799 variant cases, which is up by 1,230 since the previous day, 691 B.1.351 variant cases which is up by seven, and 2,142 P.1 variant cases which is up by 53.

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

• 258,182 people are male — an increase of 969 cases.
• 256,647 people are female — an increase of 907 cases.
• 81,856 people are 19 and under — an increase of 397 cases.
• 193,765 people are 20 to 39 — an increase of 801 cases.
• 149,097 people are 40 to 59 — an increase of 468 cases.
• 69,665 people are 60 to 79 — an increase of 184 cases.
• 24,499 people are 80 and over — an increase of 41 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: 67 (+2)
• Deaths reported in ages 40 to 59: 472 (+7)
• Deaths reported in ages 60 to 79: 2,624 (+10)
• Deaths reported in ages 80 and older: 5,411 (+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 3,768 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 34 current outbreaks in homes, which is down by three from the previous day.

The ministry also indicated there are currently 53 active cases among long-term care residents 101 active cases among staff — up by one and unchanged, respectively, in the last day.