Ontario is reporting 458 new COVID-19 cases on Thanksgiving holiday Monday and 390 on Tuesday. The provincial total now stands at 592,714.
The provincial government released two sets of data due to the holiday.
Of the 458 new cases recorded on Monday, the data showed 279 were unvaccinated people, 21 were partially vaccinated people, 125 were fully vaccinated people and for 30 people their vaccination status was unknown.
Of the 390 new cases recorded on Tuesday, the data showed 215 were unvaccinated people, 15 were partially vaccinated people, 130 were fully vaccinated people and for 30 people their vaccination status was unknown.
Monday and Tuesday’s case counts are among the lowest daily counts seen in several weeks with Tuesday’s being the lowest since mid-August. However, testing numbers were also lower than usual due to the holiday weekend.
According to Monday’s report, 92 cases were recorded in Toronto, 71 in Peel Region, 36 in York Region, 30 in Ottawa, 26 in Hamilton, and 21 in Niagara.
According to Tuesday’s report, 66 cases were recorded in Toronto, 65 in York Region, 62 in Peel Region, and 21 each in Hamilton and Windsor-Essex.
All other local public health units reported fewer than 20 new cases in the provincial report.
The death toll in the province rose to 9,792 as Monday saw two more deaths and Tuesday saw no new deaths recorded.
Vaccinations, recoveries, testing, 7-day average in Ontario
As of 8 p.m. on Monday, 5,512 vaccine doses (2,023 for a first shot and 3,489 for a second shot) were administered in the last day. On the previous day, 12,213 shots were administered (4,324 for a first shot and 7,889 for a second shot).
There are more than 10.7 million people fully immunized with two doses, which is 82.4 per cent of the eligible (12-plus) population. First dose coverage stands at 87.1 per cent.
Meanwhile, 578,553 Ontario residents were reported to have recovered from COVID-19, which is about 97 per cent of known cases. Resolved cases increased by 551 from Monday and 512 from Tuesday.
Active cases in Ontario now stand at 4,369 — down from the previous day when it was at 4,491, and is down from Oct. 5 when it was at 4,734. 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.
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The seven-day average has now reached 525, which is down from last week at 576. A month ago, the seven-day average was around 700.
The government said 18,280 tests were processed for Tuesday’s report, and 20,785 tests for Monday’s. There are currently 9,163 tests under investigation.
Test positivity for Monday and Tuesday sat at 1.9 each day. Last week, test positivity was at 1.8 per cent.
Hospitalizations in Ontario
Ontario reported 155 people in general hospital wards with COVID-19 (down by 10 from the previous day) with 149 patients in intensive care units (down by six) and 121 patients in ICUs on a ventilator (down 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. There may be a discrepancy due to how and when the information for both is collected.
Due to the holiday weekend, the latest data comes as of Oct. 9. For those in general hospital wards with COVID, 94 were unvaccinated, 12 were partially vaccinated and 39 were fully vaccinated. For those in ICUs, 68 were unvaccinated while 7 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 and almost 2,400 in general hospital wards.
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): 146,487 variant cases, which is unchanged since the previous day. This strain dominated Ontario’s third 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.
“Delta” the B.1.617.2 VOC (first detected in India): 19,418 variant cases, which is up by 76 since the previous day. This strain is currently dominating Ontario’s fourth wave.
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.
Cases among students and staff at Ontario schools
Meanwhile, government figures show there are currently 657 out of 4,844 schools in Ontario with at least one COVID-19 case.
On Tuesday, Ontario reported 117 new COVID-19 cases in schools — with 107 among students and 10 among staff.
There are 1,234 active infections among both students and staff, a decrease from 1,493 active cases reported Friday.
Six 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 12 current outbreaks in homes, which is unchanged from the previous day.
The ministry also indicated there are currently 29 active cases among long-term care residents and 21 active cases among staff — down by three and unchanged, respectively, in the last day.
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