Ontario is reporting 411 new COVID-19 cases on Wednesday, as case counts continue to trend downward, marking the fewest number of daily cases since late September. The provincial total now stands at 537,487.
Wednesday’s case count is the smallest increase since Sept. 25 when 409 new cases were reported. It is also the tenth straight day cases are below a thousand.
On Tuesday, there were 469 new cases, with 525 on Monday, and 663 on Sunday.
According to Wednesday’s report, 97 cases were recorded in Toronto, 72 in Peel Region, 35 in Waterloo, 26 in York Region, and 25 in Hamilton.
All other local public health units reported fewer than 25 new cases in the provincial report.
The death toll in the province has risen to 8,920 as 33 more deaths were recorded. However, the Ministry of Health noted 11 deaths in Wednesday’s count were from April and May.
As of 8 p.m. on Tuesday, more than 10.4 million total COVID-19 vaccine doses were administered. That marked an increase of 177,506 vaccines (69,160 for a first shot and 108,346 for a second shot) in the last day. There are now more than 1.2 million people fully vaccinated with two doses.
Meanwhile, 521,743 Ontario residents were reported to have recovered from COVID-19, which is about 97 per cent of known cases. Resolved cases increased by 932 from the previous day.
There were more resolved cases than new cases on Wednesday.
Active cases in Ontario now stand at 6,824 — down from the previous day when it was at 7,378, and is down from June 2 when it was at 10,664. 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 657, which is down from yesterday at 703, and is down from last week at 978. A month ago, the seven-day average was around 3,100.
The government said 30,456 tests were processed in the last 24 hours. There is currently a backlog of 15,135 tests awaiting results. A total of 15,454,884 tests have been completed since the start of the pandemic.
Test positivity for Wednesday was 2.0 per cent — the same percentage as in late February but the lowest it’s been since Oct. 7 when it hit 1.9 per cent. That figure is down from Tuesday’s at 2.7 per cent and is down from last week when it was at 2.8 per cent.
Ontario reported 571 people are hospitalized with COVID-19 (down by 50 from the previous day) with 390 patients in intensive care units (down by seven) and 314 patients in ICUs on a ventilator (up by nine). 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: 134,608 variant cases, which is up by 902 since the previous day,
“Beta” the B.1.351 VOC: 1,125 variant cases, which is up by 28 since the previous day.
“Gamma” the P.1 VOC: 4,073 variant cases which is up by 64 since the previous day.
Here is a breakdown of the total cases in Ontario by gender and age:
- 267,814 people are male — an increase of 228 cases.
- 265,949 people are female — an increase of 196 cases.
- 85,900 people are 19 and under — an increase of 102 cases.
- 201,305 people are 20 to 39 — an increase of 150 cases.
- 153,767 people are 40 to 59 — an increase of 113 cases.
- 71,546 people are 60 to 79 — an increase of 43 cases.
- 24,867 people are 80 and over — an increase of 4 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: 73 (+2)
- Deaths reported in ages 40 to 59: 536 (+3)
- Deaths reported in ages 60 to 79: 2,790 (+20)
- Deaths reported in ages 80 and older: 5,516 (+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 3,780 deaths reported among residents and patients in long-term care homes across Ontario which is an increase of three deaths since yesterday. Thirteen virus-related deaths in total have been reported among staff.
There are 19 current outbreaks in homes, which is down by one from the previous day.
The ministry also indicated there are currently 35 active cases among long-term care residents 40 active cases among staff — down by five and down by five, respectively, in the last day.
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