Ontario reports 143 new COVID-19 cases, 10 more deaths

Ontario is reporting 143 new COVID-19 cases on Thursday, the seventh straight day cases are below 200. The provincial case total now stands at 547,705.

According to Thursday’s report, 25 cases were recorded in both Waterloo Region and Grey Bruce with 20 in Toronto.

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 9,275 as 10 more deaths were recorded.

As of 8 p.m. on Wednesday, more than 17.6 million total COVID-19 vaccine doses were administered. That marked an increase of 166,201 vaccines (19,803 for a first shot and 146,398 for a second shot) in the last day.

There are more than 7.2 million people fully immunized with two doses which is 59.5 per cent of the adult (18+) population. First dose adult coverage stands at 79.6 per cent.

Meanwhile, 536,987 Ontario residents were reported to have recovered from COVID-19, which is about 98 per cent of known cases. Resolved cases increased by 168 from the previous day.

There were more resolved cases than new cases on Thursday.

Active cases in Ontario now stand at 1,443 — down from the previous day when it was at 1,478, and is down from July 8 when it was at 1,816. 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 155, which is down from yesterday’s at 164, and is down from last week at 206. A month ago, the seven-day average was around 400.

The government said 31,329 tests were processed in the last 24 hours. There is currently a backlog of 12,433 tests awaiting results. A total of 16,282,312 tests have been completed since the start of the pandemic.

Test positivity for Thursday hit 0.5 per cent, the lowest seen since late August. Last week, test positivity was at 0.8 per cent.

Ontario reported 165 people are hospitalized with COVID-19 (down by nine from the previous day) with 168 patients in intensive care units (down by 12) and 114 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: 144,762 variant cases, which is up by seven since the previous day,

“Beta” the B.1.351 VOC: 1,465 variant cases, which is up by one since the previous day.

“Gamma” the P.1 VOC: 4,949 variant cases, which is up by 16 since the previous day.

“Delta” B.1.617.2 VOC: 3,136 variant cases, which is up by 79 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:

• 272,950 people are male — an increase of 67 cases.
• 271,043 people are female — an increase of 69 cases.
• 88,347 people are 19 and under — an increase of 31 cases.
• 205,129 people are 20 to 39 — an increase of 60 cases.
• 156,215 people are 40 to 59 — an increase of 36 cases.
• 72,760 people are 60 to 79 — an increase of 18 cases.
• 25,159 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: 84 (+1)
• Deaths reported in ages 40 to 59: 594 (+1)
• Deaths reported in ages 60 to 79: 2,964 (+9)
• Deaths reported in ages 80 and older: 5,626 (-1 —one death was removed)
• 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 4 current outbreaks in homes, which is an increase of one from the previous day.

The ministry also indicated there are currently 11 active cases among long-term care residents 7 active cases among staff — up by one and down by one, respectively, in the last day.