Ontario reports 587 new COVID-19 cases, 5 more deaths

Ontario is reporting 587 new COVID-19 cases on Thursday, as hospitalizations have gone down over the last 24 hours. The provincial case total now stands at 590,104.

Of the 587 new cases recorded, the data showed 349 were unvaccinated people, 27 were partially vaccinated people, 164 were fully vaccinated people and for 47 people the vaccination status was unknown.

According to Thursday’s report, 119 cases were recorded in Toronto, 55 in Peel Region, 45 in Windsor-Essex, 42 in York Region, 32 in Ottawa, 28 in Durham Region, and 29 in Niagara Region.

All other local public health units reported fewer than 25 new cases in the provincial report.

The death toll in the province has risen to 9,776 as five more deaths were recorded. The report indicated one death was removed from the total due to data cleanup.

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

As of 8 p.m. on Wednesday, 25,240 vaccines (9,514 for a first shot and 15,726 for a second shot) were administered in the last day.

There are more than 10.6 million people fully immunized with two doses, which is 81.8 per cent of the eligible (12 and older) population. First dose coverage stands at 86.7 per cent.

Meanwhile, 575,753 Ontario residents were reported to have recovered from COVID-19, which is about 97 per cent of known cases. Resolved cases increased by 586 from the previous day.

Active cases in Ontario now stand at 4,575 — down from the previous day when it was at 4,579, and is down from Sept. 30 when it was at 4,947. 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 which is 565 down from yesterday’s at 574, and is also down from the week prior when it was 606. A month ago, the seven-day average was around 750.

The government said 37,057 tests were processed in the previous 24 hours. There are 16,548 tests currently under investigation.

Test positivity hit 1.7 per cent. Last week, test positivity was also at 1.7 per cent.

Hospitalizations in Ontario

Ontario reported 279 people in general hospital wards with COVID-19 (down by one from the previous day) with 149 patients in intensive care units (down by seven) and 125 patients in intensive care units on a ventilator (down by seven).

In the third wave peak, which was the worst wave for hospitalizations, the province saw as many as 900 patients in ICUs with COVID and almost 2,400 in general hospital wards.

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. There may be a discrepancy due to how and when the information for both is collected.

For those in general hospital wards with COVID, 96 were unvaccinated, 12 were partially vaccinated and 50 were fully vaccinated. For those in ICUs, 75 were unvaccinated while 10 were partially vaccinated and 15 were fully vaccinated.

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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): 146,485 variant cases, which is up by 6 since the previous day. This strain dominated Ontario’s third wave.

“Delta” the B.1.617.2 VOC (first detected in India): 18,979 variant cases, which is up by 38 since the previous day. This strain is dominating Ontario’s fourth wave.

“Beta” the B.1.351 VOC (first detected in South Africa): 1,503 variant cases, which is unchanged since the previous day.

“Gamma” the P.1 VOC (first detected in Brazil): 5,229 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.

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

• 293,856 people are male — an increase of 269 cases.
• 292,075 people are female — an increase of 306 cases.
• 16,660 people are under the age of four — an increase of 21 cases.
• 30,313 people are 5 to 11 — an increase of 98 cases.
• 52,676 people are 12 to 19 — an increase of 58 cases.
• 222,570 people are 20 to 39 — an increase of 196 cases.
• 165,505 people are 40 to 59 — an increase of 129 cases.
• 76,377 people are 60 to 79 — an increase of 77 cases.
• 25,897 people are 80 and over — an increase of 9 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: Six
• Deaths reported in ages 20 to 39: 98
• Deaths reported in ages 40 to 59: 674
• Deaths reported in ages 60 to 79: 3,183
• Deaths reported in ages 80 and older: 5,814
• The province notes there may be a reporting delay for deaths and data

Cases among students and staff at Ontario schools

Meanwhile, government figures show there are currently 780 out of 4,844 schools in Ontario with at least one COVID-19 case.

On Thursday, Ontario reported 121 new COVID-19 cases in schools — with 106among students and 15 among staff.

There are 1,555 active infections among both students and staff, a slight decrease from 1,556 active cases reported Wednesday.

Eight schools are closed as a result of positive cases.

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

According to the Ontario Ministry of Long-Term Care, there have been 3,822 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 13 current outbreaks in homes, which is down by onefrom the previous day.

The ministry also indicated there are currently 37 active cases among long-term care residents and 25 active cases among staff — down by three and down by two, respectively, in the last day.