Ontario is reporting 296 new COVID-19 cases on Tuesday, the lowest daily case count recorded since mid-September. The provincial total now stands at 540,426.
Tuesday’s case count is the smallest increase in new cases since Sept. 17 when 293 new cases were recorded. It is also the 9th straight day cases are below 600.
On Monday, there were 447 new cases, with 530 on Sunday and 502 on Saturday.
According to Tuesday’s report, 60 cases were recorded in Toronto, 62 in Peel Region, 45 in Waterloo Region and 15 in York Region.
All other local public health units reported fewer than 15 new cases in the provincial report.
The death toll in the province has risen to 8,974 as 13 more deaths were recorded.
As of 8 p.m. on Monday, more than 11.5 million total COVID-19 vaccine doses were administered. That marked an increase of 184,989 vaccines (41,558 for a first shot and 143,431 for a second shot) in the last day. There are more than 2 million people fully vaccinated with two doses.
Meanwhile, 526,440 Ontario residents were reported to have recovered from COVID-19, which is about 97 per cent of known cases. Resolved cases increased by 645 from the previous day.
There were more resolved cases than new cases on Tuesday.
Active cases in Ontario now stand at 5,012 — down from the previous day when it was at 5,374, and is down from June 8 when it was at 7,378. 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 479, which is down from yesterday at 503, and is down from last week at 703. A month ago, the seven-day average was around 2,400.
The government said 17,162 tests were processed in the last 24 hours. There is currently a backlog of 14,236 tests awaiting results. A total of 15,590,842 tests have been completed since the start of the pandemic.
Test positivity for Tuesday was 2.3 per cent. That figure is down from Monday’s at 2.8 per cent and is down from last week when it was at 2.7 per cent.
Ontario reported 433 people are hospitalized with COVID-19 (up by 49 from the previous day) with 382 patients in intensive care units (down by 22) and 244 patients in ICUs on a ventilator (down by 24). 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: 140,618 variant cases, which is up by 678 since the previous day,
“Beta” the B.1.351 VOC: 1,137 variant cases, which is unchanged since the previous day.
“Gamma” the P.1 VOC: 4,137 variant cases which is up by two since the previous day.
Here is a breakdown of the total cases in Ontario by gender and age:
- 269,197 people are male — an increase of 140 cases.
- 267,385 people are female — an increase of 149 cases.
- 86,657 people are 19 and under — an increase of 80 cases.
- 202,449 people are 20 to 39 — an increase of 109 cases.
- 154,419 people are 40 to 59 — an increase of 69 cases.
- 71,863 people are 60 to 79 — an increase of 29 cases.
- 24,932 people are 80 and over — an increase of nine 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: 76
- Deaths reported in ages 40 to 59: 541
- Deaths reported in ages 60 to 79: 2,816
- Deaths reported in ages 80 and older: 5,536
- 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 3,781 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 14 current outbreaks in homes, which is down by one from the previous day.
The ministry also indicated there are currently 22 active cases among long-term care residents 25 active cases among staff — up by one and up by one, respectively, in the last day.