Ontario reports 164 new COVID-19 cases with 80 older cases added due to data cleanup

Ontario is reporting 164 new COVID-19 cases on Tuesday, marking the smallest daily increase in nearly 10 months.

However, 80 cases from Toronto in 2020 were added to the count which officially registered 244 cases for Tuesday. The provincial case total now stands at 546,217.

“Due to a data review and clean-up, today’s numbers include 80 cases from 2020 that have been included in Toronto’s case count,” Ontario Ministry of Health officials said.

“This means that Ontario is reporting 164 new cases today.”

Tuesday’s case count is the lowest since Sept. 9 and is the second day in a row cases are below 200.

According to Tuesday’s report, 112 cases were recorded in Toronto (80 were from last year), 26 in Peel Region, 25 in Waterloo Region, 13 in York Region and 10 in Grey Bruce.

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 9,224 as nine more deaths were recorded.

As of 8 p.m. on Monday, more than 15.9 million total COVID-19 vaccine doses were administered. That marked an increase of 215,719 vaccines (19,555 for a first shot and 196,164 for a second shot) in the last day.

There are more than 5.8 million people fully immunized with two doses which is 47.8 per cent of the adult (18+) population. First dose adult coverage stands at 78.4 per cent.

Meanwhile, 535,110 Ontario residents were reported to have recovered from COVID-19, which is about 98 per cent of known cases. Resolved cases increased by 319 from the previous day.

There were more resolved cases than new cases on Tuesday.

Active cases in Ontario now stand at 1,883 — down from the previous day when it was at 1,967, and is down from June 29 when it was at 2,409. 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 215, which is down from yesterday’s at 223, and is down from last week at 278. A month ago, the seven-day average was around 800.

The government said 28,755 tests were processed in the last 24 hours. There is currently a backlog of 11518 tests awaiting results. A total of 16,079,145 tests have been completed since the start of the pandemic.

Test positivity for Tuesday hit 1.1 per cent, a slight decrease from Monday at 1.3 per cent. Last week, test positivity was at 1.6 per cent.

Ontario reported 202 people are hospitalized with COVID-19 (up by 47 from the previous day) with 226 patients in intensive care units (down by two) and 161 patients in ICUs on a ventilator (up by four). 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: 143,989 variant cases, which is up by 34 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 unchanged since the previous day.

“Delta” B.1.617.2 VOC: 2,049variant cases, which is up 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:

• 272,152 people are male — an increase of 103 cases.
• 270,275 people are female — an increase of 145 cases.
• 88,010 people are 19 and under — an increase of 38 cases.
• 204,532 people are 20 to 39 — an increase of 75 cases.
• 155,857 people are 40 to 59 — an increase of 71 cases.
• 72,582 people are 60 to 79 — an increase of 37 cases.
• 25,136 people are 80 and over — an increase of 23 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: 83 (+1)
• Deaths reported in ages 40 to 59: 583 (+2)
• Deaths reported in ages 60 to 79: 2,942 (+4)
• Deaths reported in ages 80 and older: 5,611 (+2)
• 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 unchanged 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 26 active cases among long-term care residents six active cases among staff — up by four and unchanged, respectively, in the last day.