Ontario reports 656 new COVID-19 cases, 13 more deaths with some older due to data cleanup

Ontario is reporting 656 new COVID-19 cases on Wednesday, an increase from the previous day at 525. The provincial case total now stands at 566,206.

Of the 656 new cases recorded, the data showed 397 were unvaccinated people, 52 were partially vaccinated people, 152 were fully vaccinated people and for 55 people the vaccination status was unknown.

According to Wednesday’s report, 158 cases were recorded in Toronto, 76 in York Region, 59 in Peel Region, 50 in Windsor-Essex 32 in Durham Region and 30 in Middlesex-London.

All other local public health units reported fewer than 30 new cases in the provincial report.

The death toll in the province has risen to 9,516 as 13 more deaths were recorded. However, the ministry of health said 5 of the deaths occurred in the last week with the other 8 having occurred more than a week ago.

Hospitalizations in Ontario

Ontario reported 339 people in general hospital wards with COVID-19 (up by three from the previous day) with 163 patients in intensive care units (up by five) and 135 patients in ICUs on a ventilator (up by four).

Provincial officials recently announced they would start including the vaccination status of those hospitalized due to COVID-19 as part of their daily COVID-19 data reporting. They noted the new dataset will grow and improve over time as more information is collected.

The most recent data showed for those in general hospital wards with COVID, 157 were unvaccinated, 14 were partially vaccinated and 36 were fully vaccinated. For those in ICUs, 89 were unvaccinated while 6 were partially vaccinated and 12 were fully vaccinated.

In the third wave peak, which was the worst wave for hospitalizations, the province saw as many as 900 patients in ICUs with COVID. The province’s data shows 5,625 patients in total have ever been in ICU with 29,001 patients having been hospitalized due to COVID since the start of the pandemic.

Vaccinations, recoveries, testing, 7-day average in Ontario

As of 8 p.m. on Tuesday, 34,703 vaccines (13,201 for a first shot and 21,502 for a second shot) were administered in the last day.

There are more than 9.9 million people fully immunized with two doses, which is 76.4 per cent of the eligible (12 and older) population. First dose coverage stands at 83 per cent.

Meanwhile, 550,829 Ontario residents were reported to have recovered from COVID-19, which is about 97 per cent of known cases. Resolved cases increased by 650 from the previous day.

Active cases in Ontario now stand at 5,861 — down from the previous day when it was at 5,868, but up from Aug. 25 when it was at 5,140. 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 701 which is the same as yesterday’s, and is up from last week when it was 625. A month ago, the seven-day average was around 200.

The government said 27,572 tests were processed in the last 24 hours. There is currently a backlog of 12,846 tests awaiting results.

Test positivity for Wednesday hit 2.9 per cent. Last week, test positivity was at 2.4 per cent.

Variants of concern in Ontario

Officials have listed breakdown data for the new VOCs (variants of concern) detected so far in the province which consists 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: 146,341 variant cases, which is unchanged since the previous day.

“Beta” the B.1.351 VOC: 1,501 variant cases, which is unchanged since the previous day.

“Gamma” the P.1 VOC: 5,222 variant cases,  which is unchanged since the previous day.

“Delta” B.1.617.2 VOC: 10,543 variant cases, which is up by 764 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:

• 282,231 people are male — an increase of 294 cases.
• 280,127 people are female — an increase of 337 cases.
• 15,367  people are under the age of four — an increase of 33 cases.
• 27,182 people are 5 to 11 — an increase of 67 cases.
• 50,330 people are 12 to 19 — an increase of 70 cases.
• 213,509 people are 20 to 39 — an increase of 250 cases.
• 160,118 people are 40 to 59 — an increase of 155 cases.
• 74,161 people are 60 to 79 — an increase of 64 cases.
• 25,439 people are 80 and over — an increase of 18 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: 5
• Deaths reported in ages 20 to 39: 90
• Deaths reported in ages 40 to 59: 627 (+4)
• Deaths reported in ages 60 to 79: 3,078 (+2)
• Deaths reported in ages 80 and older: 5,715 (+7)
• 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 3,794 deaths reported among residents and patients in long-term care homes across Ontario which is unchanged since the previous day. Thirteen virus-related deaths in total have been reported among staff.

There are 6 current outbreaks in homes, which is a decrease of two from the previous day.

The ministry also indicated there are currently 30 active cases among long-term care residents and 17 active cases among staff — up by one and up by three, respectively, in the last day.