Ontario reports 870 new COVID-19 cases, 4th straight day cases are below 1K

Ontario is reporting 870 new COVID-19 cases on Thursday, as case counts continue to trend downward marking the fourth day in a row it’s below 1,000 again. The provincial total now stands at 533,761.

On Wednesday, 733 new cases were recorded, 699 on Tuesday and 916 on Monday.

According to Thursday’s report, 225 cases were recorded in Toronto, 167 in Peel Region, 55 in Niagara, 49 in Porcupine Health Unit, 45 in Hamilton, 44 in Durham Region and 43 in Ottawa.

York Region, typically in the higher end of the provincial case count, only recorded 28 new cases.

All other local public health units reported fewer than 40 new cases in the provincial report.

The death toll in the province has risen to 8,801 as 10 more deaths were recorded.

As of 8 p.m. on Wednesday, more than 9.4 million total COVID-19 vaccine doses were administered. That marked an increase of 97,066 vaccines (for a first shot) and 53,818 (for a second shot) in the last day. There are 834,981 people fully vaccinated with two doses.

Meanwhile, 514,999 Ontario residents were reported to have recovered from COVID-19, which is about 96 per cent of known cases. Resolved cases increased by 1,563 from the previous day.

There were more resolved cases than new cases on Thursday.

Active cases in Ontario now stand at 9,961 — down from the previous day when it was at 10,664, and is down from May 27 when it was at 16,541. 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 940, which is down from yesterday at 978, and is down from last week at 1,441. A month ago, the seven-day average was around 3,500.

The government said 34,277 tests were processed in the last 24 hours. There is currently a backlog of 15,700 tests awaiting results. A total of 15,308,960 tests have been completed since the start of the pandemic.

Test positivity for Thursday was 2.8 per cent. That figure is the same as Wednesday’s and is down from last week when it was 3.6 per cent.

Ontario reported 729 people are hospitalized with COVID-19 (up by 21 from the previous day) with 546 patients in intensive care units (down by 30) and 370 patients in ICUs on a ventilator (down by 29). 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: 128,559 variant cases, which is up by 914 since the previous day,

“Beta” the B.1.351 VOC: 954  variant cases which is up by 2 since the previous day.

“Gamma” the P.1 VOC: 2,921 variant cases which is up by 10 since the previous day.

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

Here is a breakdown of the total deaths related to COVID-19 by age:

Cases, deaths and outbreaks in Ontario long-term care homes

According to the Ministry of Long-Term Care, there have been 3,774 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 25 current outbreaks in homes, which is down by three from the previous day.

The ministry also indicated there are currently 43 active cases among long-term care residents 74 active cases among staff — down by two and down by 18, respectively, in the last day.