Ontario is reporting 378 new COVID-19 cases on Wednesday, a slight uptick from a week ago. The provincial case total now stands at 601,086.
For comparison, last Wednesday saw 321 new cases and the previous Wednesday saw 304. All three Wednesday’s saw comparable testing volumes in the 30,000 range.
Of the 378 new cases recorded, the data showed 186 were unvaccinated people, 12 were partially vaccinated people, 142 were fully vaccinated people and for 41 people the vaccination status was unknown.
According to Wednesday’s report, 64 cases were recorded in Toronto, 41 in York Region, 32 in Niagara, 26 in Simcoe Muskoka, 23 in Hamilton, 21 in Windsor-Essex, and 20 in Ottawa. 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 9,886 as five new deaths were recorded.
Vaccinations, recoveries, testing, 7-day average in Ontario
As of 8 p.m. on Tuesday, 16,933 vaccines (6,157 for a first shot and 10,776 for a second shot) were administered in the last day.
There are more than 11 million people fully immunized with two doses, which is 84.7 per cent of the eligible (12 and older) population. First dose coverage stands at 88.3 per cent.
Meanwhile, 588,107 Ontario residents were reported to have recovered from COVID-19, which is about 98 per cent of known cases. Resolved cases increased by 380 from the previous day.
Active cases in Ontario now stand at 3,093 — down from the previous day when it was at 3,159, but is up from Oct. 27 when it was at 2,978. 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 379, which is up from the week prior when it was 366. A month ago, the seven-day average was around 600.
The government said 32,950 tests were processed in the previous 24 hours. There are 13,643 tests currently under investigation.
Test positivity hit 1.4 per cent. Last week, test positivity was also at 1.4 per cent.
Hospitalizations in Ontario
Ontario reported 237 people in general hospital wards with COVID-19 (up by seven from the previous day) with 137 patients in intensive care units (up by one) and 114 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, 81 were unvaccinated, 13 were partially vaccinated and 63 were fully vaccinated. For those in ICUs, 60 were unvaccinated while 6 were partially vaccinated and 12 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 unchanged since the previous day. This strain dominated Ontario’s third wave.
“Delta” the B.1.617.2 VOC (first detected in India): 21,232 variant cases, which is up by 28 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:
- 300,496 people are male — an increase of 204 cases.
- 298,448 people are female — an increase of 172 cases.
- 17,202 people are under the age of four — an increase of 13 cases.
- 32,002 people are 5 to 11 — an increase of 51 cases.
- 53,651 people are 12 to 19 — an increase of 31 cases.
- 225,975 people are 20 to 39 — an increase of 120 cases.
- 168,249 people are 40 to 59 — an increase of 104 cases.
- 77,764 people are 60 to 79 — an increase of 50 cases.
- 26,136 people are 80 and over — an increase of 10 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: 689 (+1)
- Deaths reported in ages 60 to 79: 3,238 (+4)
- Deaths reported in ages 80 and older: 5,849
- 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 499 out of 4,844 schools in Ontario with at least one COVID-19 case.
On Wednesday, Ontario reported 89 new COVID-19 cases in schools — with 78 among students, 10 among staff and one person was not identified. The data was collected between Monday afternoon and Tuesday afternoon — a 24-hour period.
There are 943 active infections among both students and staff, a decrease from 965 active cases reported Tuesday.
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 unchanged 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 — both unchanged in the last day.