Ontario reports almost 850 new COVID-19 cases, 11 more deaths

Ontario is reporting 848 new COVID-19 cases on Friday, the highest count in almost a week. The provincial case total now stands at 572, 978.

Of the 848 new cases recorded, the data showed 534 were unvaccinated people, 76 were partially vaccinated people, 189 were fully vaccinated people and for 49 people the vaccination status was unknown.

According to Friday’s report, 166 cases were recorded in Toronto, 117 in Peel Region, 77 in York Region, 74 in Windsor-Essex, 53 in Hamilton, 53 in Ottawa and 48 in Durham Region.

All other local public health units reported fewer than 45 new cases in the provincial report.

The death toll in the province has risen to 9,590 as five new deaths were recorded. In addition, the Ontario Ministry of Health said six more deaths occurred more than a month ago due to data cleanup and were also added to the overall total.

Hospitalizations in Ontario

Ontario reported 361 people in general hospital wards with COVID-19 (down by four from the previous day) with 177 patients in intensive care units (down by seven) and 153 patients in ICUs on a ventilator (down by seven).

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.

For those in general hospital wards with COVID, 155 were unvaccinated, 16 were partially vaccinated and 30 were fully vaccinated. For those in ICUs, 109 were unvaccinated while 9 were partially vaccinated and 14 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 has recorded 5,707 patients in total have ever been in ICU with 29,330 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 Thursday, 35,844 vaccines (16,477 for a first shot and 19,367 for a second shot) were administered in the last day.

There are more than 10.1 million people fully immunized with two doses, which is 77.7 per cent of the eligible (12 and older) population. First dose coverage stands at 84.1 per cent.

Meanwhile, 557,265 Ontario residents were reported to have recovered from COVID-19, which is about 97 per cent of known cases. Resolved cases increased by 770 from the previous day.

Active cases in Ontario now stand at 6,123 — up from the previous day when it was at 6,056, and is up from Sept. 3 when it was at 6,094. 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 729 which is the down from yesterday’s at 723, and is down from last week when it was 732. A month ago, the seven-day average was around 300.

The government said 28,247 tests were processed in the last 24 hours. There is currently a backlog of 13,296 tests awaiting results.

Test positivity hit 3.1 per cent. Last week, test positivity was at 3.2 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:

“Alpha” the B.1.1.7 VOC (first detected in the United Kingdom): 146,444 variant cases, which is up by four since the previous day. This strain dominated Ontario’s third wave.

“Delta” the B.1.617.2 VOC (first detected in India): 14,051 variant cases, which is up by 748 since the previous day. This strain is dominating Ontario’s fourth wave.

“Beta” the B.1.351 VOC (first detected in South Africa): 1,501 variant cases, which is unchanged since the previous day.

“Gamma” the P.1 VOC (first detected in Brazil): 5,223 variant cases, which is unchanged 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:

• 285,550 people are male — an increase of 437 cases.
• 283,487 people are female — an increase of 420 cases.
• 15,691 people are under the age of four — an increase of 45 cases.
• 27,909 people are 5 to 11 — an increase of 82 cases.
• 50,078 people are 12 to 19 — an increase of 90 cases.
• 215,174 people are 20 to 39 — an increase of 353 cases.
• 161,706 people are 40 to 59 — an increase of 178 cases.
• 74,743 people are 60 to 79 — an increase of 83 cases.
• 25,570  people are 80 and over — an increase of 17 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: 92 (+1)
• Deaths reported in ages 40 to 59: 638 (+4)
• Deaths reported in ages 60 to 79: 3,109 (+2)
• Deaths reported in ages 80 and older: 5,745 (+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 3,804 deaths reported among residents and patients in long-term care homes across Ontario which is an increase of two deaths since the previous day. Thirteen virus-related deaths in total have been reported among staff.

There are seven current outbreaks in homes, which is unchanged from the previous day.

The ministry also indicated there are currently 32 active cases among long-term care residents and 17 active cases among staff — up by four and down by two, respectively, in the last day.