Ontario reports 153 new COVID-19 cases, 7 deaths

Ontario is reporting 153 new COVID-19 cases on Wednesday, the sixth straight day cases are below 200. The provincial case total now stands at 547,562.

According to Wednesday’s report, 28 cases were recorded in Toronto, 23 in Waterloo Region, 20 in Grey Bruce, 19 in Peel Region,12 in Middlesex-London and 10 in Wellington-Dufferin-Guelph.

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 9,265 as seven more deaths were recorded.

As of 8 p.m. on Tuesday, more than 17.4 million total COVID-19 vaccine doses were administered. That marked an increase of 179,197 vaccines (19,676 for a first shot and 159,521 for a second shot) in the last day.

There are more than 7.2 million people fully immunized with two doses which is 58.4 per cent of the adult (18+) population. First dose adult coverage stands at 79.5 per cent.

Meanwhile, 536,819 Ontario residents were reported to have recovered from COVID-19, which is about 98 per cent of known cases. Resolved cases increased by 216 from the previous day.

There were more resolved cases than new cases on Wednesday.

Active cases in Ontario now stand at 1,478 — down from the previous day when it was at 1,548, and is down from July 7 when it was at 1,841. 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 164, which is down from yesterday’s at 170, and is down from last week at 216. A month ago, the seven-day average was around 500.

The government said 29,085 tests were processed in the last 24 hours. There is currently a backlog of 13,534 tests awaiting results. A total of 16,221,898 tests have been completed since the start of the pandemic.

Test positivity for Wednesday hit 0.6 per cent. Last week, test positivity was at 0.9 per cent.

Ontario reported 174 people are hospitalized with COVID-19 (up by one from the previous day) with 180 patients in intensive care units (down by 12) and 116 patients in ICUs on a ventilator (down by seven). 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: 144,755 variant cases, which is up by 10 since the previous day,

“Beta” the B.1.351 VOC: 1,464 variant cases, which is up by 16 since the previous day.

“Gamma” the P.1 VOC: 4,933 variant cases, which is up by 74 since the previous day.

“Delta” B.1.617.2 VOC: 3,057 variant cases, which is up by 305 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:

• 272,883 people are male — an increase of 76 cases.
• 270,974 people are female — an increase of 81 cases.
• 88,316 people are 19 and under — an increase of 34 cases.
• 205,069 people are 20 to 39 — an increase of 52 cases.
• 156,179 people are 40 to 59 — an increase of 45 cases.
• 72,742 people are 60 to 79 — an increase of 17 cases.
• 25,158  people are 80 and over — an increase of five 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: 595 (+3)
• Deaths reported in ages 60 to 79: 2,955
• Deaths reported in ages 80 and older: 5,627 (+3)
• The province notes there may be a reporting delay for deaths and data

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

According to the Ministry of Long-Term Care, there have been 3,788 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 a decrease of two from the previous day.

The ministry also indicated there are currently 10 active cases among long-term care residents 8 active cases among staff — down by three and down by six, respectively, in the last day.