Ontario reports 170 new COVID-19 cases, 1 death

Ontario is reporting 170 new COVID-19 cases on Monday, marking the smallest daily increase in nearly 10 months. The provincial case total now stands at 545,973.

Monday’s case count is the lowest since Sept. 10 when the same number of cases were logged. On Sept. 9 there were 140 new cases.

It is also the second time in a week case counts are below 200.

According to Monday’s report, 34 cases were recorded in Waterloo Region, 27 in Toronto, 18 in Grey Bruce and 13 in Haliburton, Kawartha Pine Ridge District.

All other local public health units reported fewer than 10 new cases in the provincial report.

The death toll in the province has risen to 9,215 as one more death was recorded.

As of 8 p.m. on Sunday, more than 15.7 million total COVID-19 vaccine doses were administered. That marked an increase of 144,795 vaccines (11,955 for a first shot and 132,840 for a second shot) in the last day.

There are more than 4.8 million people fully immunized with two doses which is 46.3 per cent of the adult (18+) population. First dose adult coverage stands at 78.3 per cent.

Meanwhile, 534,791 Ontario residents were reported to have recovered from COVID-19, which is about 98 per cent of known cases. Resolved cases increased by 233 from the previous day.

There were more resolved cases than new cases on Monday.

Active cases in Ontario now stand at 1,967 — down from the previous day when it was at 2,031, and is down from June 28 when it was at 2,506. 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 223, which is down from yesterday’s at 228, and is down from last week at 278. A month ago, the seven-day average was around 800.

The government said 12,949 tests were processed in the last 24 hours — the fewest number of tests in several months. There is currently a backlog of 4,321 tests awaiting results. A total of 16,050,390 tests have been completed since the start of the pandemic.

Test positivity for Monday hit 1.3 per cent, the same as it was on Sunday. Last week, test positivity was at 1.8 per cent.

Ontario reported 155 people are hospitalized with COVID-19 (down by three from the previous day) with 228 patients in intensive care units (down by seven) and 157 patients in ICUs on a ventilator (down by two). 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: 143,955 variant cases, which is up by 56 since the previous day,

“Beta” the B.1.351 VOC: 1,415 variant cases, which is unchanged since the previous day.

“Gamma” the P.1 VOC: 4,632 variant cases which is up by one since the previous day.

“Delta” B.1.617.2 VOC: 2,041 variant cases which is unchanged since the previous day.

NOTE: It takes several days for positive COVID-19 tests to be re-examined for the exact variant. Therefore, there may be more variant cases than overall cases in daily reporting.

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

• 272,049 people are male — an increase of 90 cases.
• 270,130 people are female — an increase of 76 cases.
• 87,972 people are 19 and under — an increase of 52 cases.
• 204,457 people are 20 to 39 — an increase of 51 cases.
• 155,786 people are 40 to 59 — an increase of 40 cases.
• 72,545 people are 60 to 79 — an increase of 24 cases.
• 25,113 people are 80 and over — an increase of three 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: 581
• Deaths reported in ages 60 to 79: 2,938
• Deaths reported in ages 80 and older: 5,609
• 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 3,783 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 3 current outbreaks in homes, which is unchanged from the previous day.

The ministry also indicated there are currently 22 active cases among long-term care residents six active cases among staff — up by one and up by one, respectively, in the last day.