Ontario reports 699 new COVID-19 cases, lowest daily increase since October

Ontario is reporting 699 new COVID-19 cases on Tuesday, the lowest increase in daily cases in seven-and-a-half months as the province climbs out of the third wave. The provincial total now stands at 532,158.

Tuesday’s case count is the lowest daily increase since October 2020 (when 658 new cases were logged on Oct. 18).

It is also the second day in a row case counts are below 1,000. On Monday, 916 new cases were recorded and 1,033 on Sunday as cases continue to trend downwards.

According to Tuesday’s report, 207 cases were recorded in Toronto, 144 in Peel Region, 52 in York Region and 50 in Durham Region.

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 8,766 as nine more deaths were recorded.

As of 8 p.m. on Monday, more than 9.2 million total COVID-19 vaccine doses were administered. That marked an increase of over 120,195 vaccines in the last day. There are more than 739,000 people fully vaccinated with two doses.

Meanwhile, 511,703 Ontario residents were reported to have recovered from COVID-19, which is about 96 per cent of known cases. Resolved cases increased by 1,568 from the previous day.

There were more resolved cases than new cases on Tuesday.

Active cases in Ontario now stand at 11,689 — down from the previous day when it was at 12,567, and is down from May 25 when it was at 19,026. 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 1,030, which is down from yesterday at 1,078, and is down from last week at 1,693. A month ago, the seven-day average was around 3,600.

The government said 20,262 tests were processed in the last 24 hours. There is currently a backlog of 15,490 tests awaiting results. A total of 15,242,915 tests have been completed since the start of the pandemic.

Test positivity for Tuesday was 3.6 per cent. That figure is down from Monday’s at 4.3 per cent, and is down from last week when it was 6.2 per cent.

Ontario reported 804 people are hospitalized with COVID-19 (up by 73 from the previous day) with 583 patients in intensive care units (down by 34) and 387 patients in ICUs on a ventilator (up by five). 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: 126,707 variant cases, which is up by 762 since the previous day,

The B.1.351 VOC: 949 variant cases which is up by 1 since the previous day.

The P.1 VOC: 2,867 variant cases which is up by 45 since the previous day.

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

• 264,840 people are male — an increase of 362 cases.
• 263,045 people are female — an increase of 348 cases.
• 84,648 people are 19 and under — an increase of 159 cases.
• 199,277 people are 20 to 39 — an increase of 281 cases.
• 152,393 people are 40 to 59 — an increase of 186 cases.
• 70,984 people are 60 to 79 — an increase of 66 cases.
• 24,758 people are 80 and over — an increase of 7 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
• Deaths reported in ages 40 to 59: 507
• Deaths reported in ages 60 to 79: 2,715 (+3)
• Deaths reported in ages 80 and older: 5,469 (+6)
• 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 an increase of one death since yesterday. Thirteen virus-related deaths in total have been reported among staff.

There are 29 current outbreaks in homes, which is unchanged from the previous day.

The ministry also indicated there are currently 51 active cases among long-term care residents 96 active cases among staff — down by six and down by nine, respectively, in the last day.