Ontario reports 183 new COVID-19 cases, 9 deaths

Ontario is reporting 183 new COVID-19 cases on Friday, as case counts continue to hover above and below the 200 mark. The provincial case total now stands at 546,804.

On Thursday there were 210 cases reported with 194 on Wednesday and 244 on Tuesday.

According to Friday’s report, 50 cases were recorded in Waterloo, 24 each in both Peel Region and Grey Bruce, 22 in Toronto and 10 in Halton Region.

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 9,237 as nine more deaths were recorded.

As of 8 p.m. on Thursday, more than 16.6 million total COVID-19 vaccine doses were administered. That marked an increase of 224,864 vaccines (21,810 for a first shot and 203,054 for a second shot) in the last day.

There are more than 6.5 million people fully immunized with two doses which is 52.7 per cent of the adult (18+) population. First dose adult coverage stands at 78.9 per cent.

Meanwhile, 535,810 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 Friday.

Active cases in Ontario now stand at 1,757— down from the previous day when it was at 1,816, and is down from July 2 when it was at 2,175. 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 203, which is down from yesterday’s at 206, and is down from last week at 259. A month ago, the seven-day average was around 600.

The government said 26,101 tests were processed in the last 24 hours. There is currently a backlog of 9,714 tests awaiting results. A total of 16,145,130 tests have been completed since the start of the pandemic.

Test positivity for Friday hit 0.7 per cent, which is the lowest seen since early September. Last week, test positivity was at 0.9 per cent.

Ontario reported 189 people are hospitalized with COVID-19 (down by five from the previous day) with 202 patients in intensive care units (down by 13) and 143 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: 144,493 variant cases, which 76 cases were removed since the previous day,

“Beta” the B.1.351 VOC: 1,439 variant cases, which is up by three since the previous day.

“Gamma” the P.1 VOC: 4,739 variant cases, which is up by 34 since the previous day.

“Delta” B.1.617.2 VOC: 2,459 variant cases, which is up by 174 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.

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

• 272,458 people are male — an increase of 102 cases.
• 270,578 people are female — an increase of 93 cases.
• 88,139 people are 19 and under — an increase of 41 cases.
• 204,762 people are 20 to 39 — an increase of 70 cases.
• 156,012 people are 40 to 59 — an increase of 48 cases.
• 72,648 people are 60 to 79 — an increase of 23 cases.
• 25,143 people are 80 and over — an increase of one case.
• 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: 586 (+3)
• Deaths reported in ages 60 to 79: 2,947 (+5)
• Deaths reported in ages 80 and older: 5,617 (+1)
• The province notes there may be a reporting delay for deaths and data corrections or updates can result in death records being removed.

0:53 COVID-19: More than half of Ontarians are double-vaxxed, health minister says

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

According to the Ministry of Long-Term Care, there have been 3,785 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 4 current outbreaks in homes, which is unchanged from the previous day.

The ministry also indicated there are currently 19 active cases among long-term care residents nine active cases among staff — down by one and up by one, respectively, in the last day.