Ontario reports 304 new COVID-19 cases, lowest daily count since early August

Ontario is reporting 304 new COVID-19 cases on Wednesday, the tenth day in a row the count is fewer than 500. The provincial case total now stands at 595,867.

It is also the smallest increase in cases since Aug. 5 when 213 new cases were recorded.

Of the 304 new cases recorded, the data showed 198 were unvaccinated people, 10 were partially vaccinated people, 84 were fully vaccinated people and for 12 people the vaccination status was unknown.

According to Wednesday’s report, 46 cases were recorded in Toronto, 24 in Sudbury, 22 in York Region, 21 in Windsor-Essex, 20 in Hamilton, 19 in Ottawa, and 15 in Durham Region.

All other local public health units reported fewer than 15 new cases in the provincial report.

The death toll in the province has risen to 9,823 as four more deaths were recorded.

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

As of 8 p.m. on Tuesday, 25,284 vaccines (9,113 for a first shot and 16,171 for a second shot) were administered in the last day.

There are more than 10.8 million people fully immunized with two doses, which is 83.4 per cent of the eligible (12 and older) population. First dose coverage stands at 87.6 per cent.

Meanwhile, 582,609 Ontario residents were reported to have recovered from COVID-19, which is about 98 per cent of known cases. Resolved cases increased by 537 from the previous day.

Active cases in Ontario now stand at 3,435 — down from the previous day when it was at 3,672, and is down from Oct. 13 when it was at 4,136. 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 407, which is down from the week prior when it was 500. A month ago, the seven-day average was around 700.

The government said 31,569 tests were processed in the previous 24 hours. There are 13,668 tests currently under investigation.

Test positivity hit 1.3 per cent. Last week, test positivity was at 1.9 per cent.

Hospitalizations in Ontario

Ontario reported 258 people in general hospital wards with COVID-19 (down by two from the previous day) with 159 patients in intensive care units (unchanged) and 132 patients in intensive care units on a ventilator (up by two).

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 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, 113 were unvaccinated, 10 were partially vaccinated and 31 were fully vaccinated. For those in ICUs, 76 were unvaccinated while 6 were partially vaccinated and 23 were fully vaccinated.

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): 146,495 variant cases, which is unchanged since the previous day. This strain dominated Ontario’s third wave.

“Delta” the B.1.617.2 VOC (first detected in India): 20,022 variant cases, which is up by 46 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): 5,230 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:

• 297,825 people are male — an increase of 140 cases.
• 295,905 people are female — an increase of 166 cases.
• 16,941 people are under the age of four — an increase of 16 cases.
• 31,163 people are 5 to 11 — an increase of 43 cases.
• 53,209 people are 12 to 19 — an increase of 24 cases.
• 224,394 people are 20 to 39 — an increase of 109 cases.
• 166,932 people are 40 to 59 — an increase of 84 cases.
• 77,098 people are 60 to 79 — an increase of 25 cases.
• 26,023 people are 80 and over — an increase of 3 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: 99
• Deaths reported in ages 40 to 59: 681 (+1)
• Deaths reported in ages 60 to 79: 3,209 (+2)
• Deaths reported in ages 80 and older: 5,827 (+1)
• 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 592 out of 4,844 schools in Ontario with at least one COVID-19 case.

On Wednesday, Ontario reported 107 new COVID-19 cases in schools — with 85 among students and 22 among staff. The data was collected between Monday afternoon and Tuesday afternoon — a 24 hour period.

There are 1,148 active infections among both students and staff, a decrease from 1,200 active cases reported Tuesday.

One school is 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 3,823 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 19 active cases among long-term care residents and 21 active cases among staff — down by three and down by two, respectively, in the last day.