Ontario is reporting 331 new COVID-19 cases on Tuesday, a slight uptick from a week ago. The provincial case total now stands at 600,708.
For comparison, last Tuesday saw 269 new cases and the previous Tuesday saw 328.
Of the 331 new cases recorded, the data showed 156 were unvaccinated people, 14 were partially vaccinated people, 136 were fully vaccinated people and for 25 people the vaccination status was unknown.
According to Tuesday’s report, 44 cases were recorded in York Region, 42 in Toronto, 36 in Peel Region, 23 in Ottawa, 22 in Simcoe Muskoka and 21 in Hamilton. All other local public health units reported fewer than 20 new cases in the provincial report.
The death toll in the province has risen to 9,881 as seven new deaths were recorded.
Vaccinations, recoveries, testing, 7-day average in Ontario
As of 8 p.m. on Monday, 13,774 vaccines (5,111 for a first shot and 8,663 for a second shot) were administered in the last day.
There are more than 11 million people fully immunized with two doses, which is 84.6 per cent of the eligible (12 and older) population. First dose coverage stands at 88.2 per cent.
Meanwhile, 587,727 Ontario residents were reported to have recovered from COVID-19, which is about 98 per cent of known cases. Resolved cases increased by 383 from the previous day.
Active cases in Ontario now stand at 3,100— down from the previous day when it was at 3,159, but is up from Oct. 26 when it was at 3,051. 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 371, which is up from the week prior when it was 364. A month ago, the seven-day average was around 600.
The government said 20,148 tests were processed in the previous 24 hours. There are 14,419 tests currently under investigation.
Test positivity hit 1.5 per cent. Last week, test positivity was also at 1.5 per cent.
Hospitalizations in Ontario
Ontario reported 230 people in general hospital wards with COVID-19 (up by 96 from the previous day) with 136 patients in intensive care units (up by three) and 111 patients in intensive care units on a ventilator (up by three).
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, 92 were unvaccinated,14 were partially vaccinated and 45 were fully vaccinated. For those in ICUs, 59 were unvaccinated while 5 were partially vaccinated and 14 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): 146,511 variant cases, which is up by 4 since the previous day. This strain dominated Ontario’s third wave.
“Delta” the B.1.617.2 VOC (first detected in India): 21,204 variant cases, which is up by 8 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): 5,231 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:
- 300,292 people are male — an increase of 159 cases.
- 298,276 people are female — an increase of 177 cases.
- 17,189 people are under the age of four — an increase of 14 cases.
- 31,951 people are 5 to 11 — an increase of 55 cases.
- 53,620 people are 12 to 19 — an increase of 28 cases.
- 225,855 people are 20 to 39 — an increase of 87 cases.
- 168,145 people are 40 to 59 — an increase of 85 cases.
- 77,714 people are 60 to 79 — an increase of 53 cases.
- 26,126 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: 103
- Deaths reported in ages 40 to 59: 688 (+1)
- Deaths reported in ages 60 to 79: 3,234 (+2)
- Deaths reported in ages 80 and older: 5,849 (+4)
- 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 503 out of 4,844 schools in Ontario with at least one COVID-19 case.
On Tuesday, Ontario reported 144 new COVID-19 cases in schools — with 123 among students, 20 among staff and one person was not identified. The data was collected between Friday afternoon and Monday afternoon — a three-day period.
There are 965 active infections among both students and staff, a decrease from 973 active cases reported Monday.
Four 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 3,824 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 3 current outbreaks in homes, which is down by one from the previous day.
The ministry also indicated there are currently 3 active cases among long-term care residents and 9 active cases among staff — down by 11 and down by 4, respectively, the last day.