Ontario reports 299 new COVID-19 cases, 25 deaths as numbers include older data amid cleanup

Ontario is reporting 299 new COVID-19 cases on Tuesday, however, officials said several cases from the count are from last year. The provincial case total now stands at 544,713.

“Due to a data review and clean-up, today’s numbers include 90 cases from 2020 that have been included in Toronto’s case count,” the ministry of health said.

According to Tuesday’s report, 130 cases were recorded in Toronto, 69 in Waterloo Region and 20 in Peel 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 9,154 as 25 more deaths were recorded. However, the ministry of health said about 19 deaths were from previous months and were included in Tuesday’s count.

As of 8 p.m. on Monday, more than 14.4 million total COVID-19 vaccine doses were administered. That marked another new record increase of 265,231 vaccines (26,532 for a first shot and 238,699 for a second shot) in the last day.

There are more than 4.5 million people fully immunized with two doses which is 37.3 per cent of the adult (18+) population. First dose adult coverage stands at 77.5 per cent.

Meanwhile, 533,150 Ontario residents were reported to have recovered from COVID-19, which is about 98 per cent of known cases. Resolved cases increased by 371 from the previous day.

There were more resolved cases than new cases on Tuesday.

Active cases in Ontario now stand at 2,409 — down from the previous day when it was at 2,506, and is down from June 22 when it was at 3,248. 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.

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The seven-day average has now reached 278, which is the same as yesterday’s, but is down from last week at 334. A month ago, the seven-day average was around 1,100.

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The government said 28,306 tests were processed in the last 24 hours. There is currently a backlog of 11,990 tests awaiting results. A total of 15,922,024 tests have been completed since the start of the pandemic.

Test positivity for Tuesday hit 1.6 per cent, a slight decrease from Monday’s when it was 1.8 per cent. Last week, test positivity was also 1.6 per cent.

Ontario reported 257 people are hospitalized with COVID-19 (up by 39 from the previous day) with 276 patients in intensive care units (down by 11) and 185 patients in ICUs on a ventilator (down by six). 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), P.1 (now named by WHO as “Gamma” and was first detected in Brazil), and B.1.617.2 (now named by WHO as “Delta” and was first detected in India).

“Alpha” the B.1.1.7 VOC: 143,381 variant cases, which is up by 31 since the previous day,

“Beta” the B.1.351 VOC: 1,315 variant cases, which is up by 42 since the previous day.

“Gamma” the P.1 VOC: 4,439 variant cases which is up by 11 since the previous day.

“Delta” B.1.617.2 VOC: 1,704 variant cases which is up by 75 since the previous day.

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

• 271,388 people are male — an increase of 133 cases.
• 269,540 people are female — an increase of 168 cases.
• 87,653 people are 19 and under — an increase of 62 cases.
• 204,034 people are 20 to 39 — an increase of 83 cases.
• 155,490 people are 40 to 59 — an increase of 96 cases.
• 72,379 people are 60 to 79 — an increase of 34 cases.
• 25,057 people are 80 and over — an increase of 26 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: 82
• Deaths reported in ages 40 to 59: 569 (+5)
• Deaths reported in ages 60 to 79: 2,908 (+12)
• Deaths reported in ages 80 and older: 5,590 (+8)
• The province notes there may be a reporting delay for deaths and data corrections or updates can result in death records being removed.

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

According to the Ministry of Long-Term Care, there have been 3,782 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 5 current outbreaks in homes, which is a decrease of one from the previous day.

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