Ontario reports nearly 1,800 COVID-19 cases, record number of new vaccinations

Ontario reported 1,794 COVID-19 cases on Saturday, bringing the total number of cases in the province to 520,774.

“Locally, there are 416 new cases in Toronto, 355 in Peel, 147 in Durham and 140 in York Region,” Health Minister Christine Elliott said.

For comparison, last Saturday 2,584 cases were reported.

Twenty new deaths were also announced on May 22, bringing the provincial death toll to 8,599.

A total of 490,721 coronavirus cases are considered resolved, which is up by 2,520 and is 94.2 per cent of all confirmed cases.

Nearly 34,600 additional tests were completed. Ontario has now completed a total of 14,973,489 tests and 18,338 remain under investigation.

The province indicated that the positivity rate for the last day was six per cent, which is up from Friday’s report, when it was 5.4 per cent, and down from last Saturday’s report, when it was 6.2 per cent.

There have been 116,921 confirmed cases of the B.1.1.7 variant, first discovered in the U.K. (up by 1,122), as well as 783 of the B.1.351 variant which was discovered in South Africa (up by 92), and 2,317 cases of the P.1 variant, first found in Brazil (up by 175).

Provincial figures showed there are 1,207 people hospitalized with the virus (down by 58), with 706 in intensive care due to COVID-19 (down by nine), 504 of whom are on a ventilator (down by six).

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Here is a breakdown of Ontario’s cases by age and gender:

• 259,101 people are male
• 257,511 people are female
• 82,226 people are 19 and under
• 194,515 people are 20 to 39
• 149,558 people are 40 to 59
• 69,837 people are 60 to 79
• 24,542 people are 80 and over

The province notes that not all cases have a reported age or gender.

The province also notes that the number of cases publicly reported each day may not align with case counts reported by local public health units on a given day. Local public health units report when they were first notified of a case, which can be updated and changed as information becomes available. Data may also be pulled at different times.

Record number of new vaccinations

As of Friday evening, 7,925,277 COVID-19 vaccine doses had been administered in Ontario, marking an increase of a record 190,129 over 24 hours.

So far, 519,981 people in the province are considered to be fully vaccinated.