Ontario is reporting 1,135 new COVID-19 cases on Thursday. The provincial total now stands at 527,180.
Thursday’s case count is up slightly from Wednesday’s which saw 1,095 new infections but test positivity was at 3.6 per cent, the lowest seen since mid-March. On Tuesday, 1,039 new cases were recorded and 1,446 on Monday.
According to Thursday’s report, 316 cases were recorded in Toronto, 271 in Peel Region, and 75 in York Region and 66 in Hamilton.
All other local public health units reported fewer than 50 new cases in the provincial report.
The death toll in the province has risen to 8,697 as 19 more deaths were recorded.
As of 8 p.m. on Wednesday, more than 8.5 million COVID-19 vaccine doses were administered. That marked an increase of 143,748 vaccines in the last day. There are 594,854 people fully vaccinated with two doses.
Meanwhile, 501,942 Ontario residents were reported to have recovered from COVID-19, which is about 95 per cent of known cases. Resolved cases increased by 2,302 from the previous day.
There were more resolved cases than new cases on Thursday.
Active cases in Ontario now stand at 16,541 — down from the previous day when it was at 17,727, and is down from May 20 when it was at 23,026. 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 1,441, which is down from yesterday at 1,622, and is down from last week at 2,131. A month ago, the seven-day average was around 3,900.
The government said 37,705 tests were processed in the last 24 hours. There is currently a backlog of 23,068 tests awaiting results. A total of 15,103,437 tests have been completed since the start of the pandemic.
Test positivity for Thursday’s was 3.6 per cent — the lowest since March. That figure is down from Wednesday’s was 5.3 per cent, and is down from last week when it was 5.2 per cent.
Ontario reported 1,072 people are hospitalized with COVID-19 (down by one from the previous day) with 650 patients in intensive care units (down by 22) and 452 patients in ICUs on a ventilator (down 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 and is currently the dominating known strain), B.1.351 (first detected in South Africa), P.1 (first detected in Brazil).
The B.1.1.7 VOC: 122,349 variant cases, which is up by 1,227 since the previous day,
The B.1.351 VOC: 840 variant cases which is up by four since the previous day.
The P.1 VOC: 2,544 variant cases which is up by 39 since the previous day.
Here is a breakdown of the total cases in Ontario by gender and age:
- 262,312 people are male — an increase of 560 cases.
- 260,586 people are female — an increase of 539 cases.
- 83,528 people are 19 and under — an increase of 209 cases.
- 197,230 people are 20 to 39 — an increase of 501 cases.
- 151,148 people are 40 to 59 — an increase of 288 cases.
- 70,506 people are 60 to 79 — an increase of 123 cases.
- 24,672 people are 80 and over — an increase of 15 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: 70 (+2)
- Deaths reported in ages 40 to 59: 496 (+6)
- Deaths reported in ages 60 to 79: 2,676 (+7)
- Deaths reported in ages 80 and older: 5,439 (+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 3,773 deaths reported among residents and patients in long-term care homes across Ontario which is up by two deaths since yesterday. Thirteen virus-related deaths in total have been reported among staff.
There are 37 current outbreaks in homes, which is down by four from the previous day.
The ministry also indicated there are currently 61 active cases among long-term care residents 119 active cases among staff — up by 12 and up by 24, respectively, in the last day.