Ontario reports 733 new COVID-19 cases, 7-day average drops below 1,000

Ontario is reporting 733 new COVID-19 cases on Wednesday, as case counts continue to trend downward bringing the seven-day average under 1,000 for the first time in several months. The provincial total now stands at 532,891.

Wednesday marks the third straight day case counts are below a thousand. On Tuesday, 699 new cases were recorded and 916 on Monday.

According to Wednesday’s report, 173 cases were recorded in Toronto, 134 in Peel Region and 69 in York 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 8,791 as 25 more deaths were recorded.

As of 8 p.m. on Tuesday, more than 9.3 million total COVID-19 vaccine doses were administered. That marked an increase of over 139,901 vaccines in the last day. There are more than 781,000 people fully vaccinated with two doses.

Meanwhile, 513,436 Ontario residents were reported to have recovered from COVID-19, which is about 96 per cent of known cases. Resolved cases increased by 1,733 from the previous day.

There were more resolved cases than new cases on Wednesday.

Active cases in Ontario now stand at 10,664 — down from the previous day when it was at 11,689, and is down from May 26 when it was at 17,727. 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 978 (below 1,000 for the first time since early November), which is down from yesterday at 1,030, and is down from last week at 1,622. A month ago, the seven-day average was around 3,600.

The government said 31,768 tests were processed in the last 24 hours. There is currently a backlog of 18,999 tests awaiting results. A total of 15,274,683 tests have been completed since the start of the pandemic.

Test positivity for Wednesday was 2.8 per cent, the lowest in a couple months. That figure is down from Tuesday’s at 3.6 per cent, and is down from last week when it was 5.3 per cent.

Ontario reported 708 people are hospitalized with COVID-19 (down by 96 from the previous day) with 576 patients in intensive care units (down by seven) and 399 patients in ICUs on a ventilator (up by 12). 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 (now named by WHO as “Alpha” and was first detected in the United Kingdom), B.1.351 (now named by WHO as “Beta” and was first detected in South Africa), and P.1 (now named by WHO as “Gamma” and was first detected in Brazil).

“Alpha” the B.1.1.7 VOC: 127,645 variant cases, which is up by 938 since the previous day,

“Beta” the B.1.351 VOC: 952 variant cases which is up by 3 since the previous day.

“Gamma” the P.1 VOC: 2,911 variant cases which is up by 44 since the previous day.

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

• 265,189 people are male — an increase of 349 cases.
• 263,407 people are female — an increase of 362 cases.
• 84,782 people are 19 and under — an increase of 134 cases.
• 199,561 people are 20 to 39 — an increase of 284 cases.
• 152,600 people are 40 to 59 — an increase of 207 cases.
• 71,077 people are 60 to 79 — an increase of 93 cases.
• 24,773 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
• Deaths reported in ages 40 to 59: 515 (+8)
• Deaths reported in ages 60 to 79: 2,724 (+9)
• Deaths reported in ages 80 and older: 5,477 (+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 3,773 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 28 current outbreaks in homes, which is down by one from the previous day.

The ministry also indicated there are currently 45 active cases among long-term care residents 92 active cases among staff — down by six and down by four, respectively, in the last day.