Ontario reports under 500 new COVID-19 cases, 2 more deaths

Ontario is reporting 480 new COVID-19 cases on Monday, a slight dip from counts seen the last three days that went above 500. The provincial case total now stands at 603,711.

For comparison, last Monday saw 422 new cases and the previous Monday saw 326. All three Mondays saw comparable testing volumes in the 20,000 range.

Of the 480 new cases recorded, the data showed 244 were unvaccinated people, 13 were partially vaccinated people, 191 were fully vaccinated people and for 32 people the vaccination status was unknown.

According to Monday’s report, 53 cases were recorded in Toronto, 49 in Waterloo, 39 in York Region, 39 in Peel Region, 29 in Niagara, 23 in Sudbury, and 21 in Windsor-Essex. 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 9,900 as two more deaths were recorded.

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

As of 8 p.m. on Sunday, 17,057 vaccines (5,428 for a first shot and 11,629 for a second shot) were administered in the last day.

There are more than 11 million people fully immunized with two doses, which is 85.1 per cent of the eligible (12 and older) population. First dose coverage stands at 88.5 per cent.

Meanwhile, 589,771 Ontario residents were reported to have recovered from COVID-19, which is about 98 per cent of known cases. Resolved cases increased by 238 from the previous day.

Active cases in Ontario now stand at 4,040 — up from the previous day when it was at 3,800, and is up from Nov. 1 when it was at 3,159. 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 476, which is up from the week prior when it was 362. A month ago, the seven-day average was around 550.

The government said 22,980 tests were processed in the previous 24 hours. There are 6,356 tests currently under investigation.

Test positivity hit 2.2 per cent. Last week, test positivity was at 1.8 per cent.

Hospitalizations in Ontario

Ontario reported 105 people in general hospital wards with COVID-19 (up by 12 from the previous day) with 127 patients in intensive care units (up by one) and 107 patients in intensive care units on a ventilator (up by one).

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.

Due to incomplete data from the weekend the latest numbers come from Saturday. For those in general hospital wards with COVID, 81 were unvaccinated, 14 were partially vaccinated and 52 were fully vaccinated. For those in ICUs, 54 were unvaccinated while 3 were partially vaccinated and 15 were fully vaccinated.

Provincial officials noted this new dataset with vaccination status for hospitalizations will grow and improve over time as more information is collected. There may also be a discrepancy due to how and when the information for both is collected.

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): 146,513 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): 21,709 variant cases, which is unchanged 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.

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

• 301,797 people are male — an increase of 238 cases.
• 299,754 people are female — an increase of 236 cases.
• 17,338 people are under the age of four — an increase of 24 cases.
• 32,384 people are 5 to 11 — an increase of 92 cases.
• 53,847 people are 12 to 19 — an increase of 39 cases.
• 226,835 people are 20 to 39 — an increase of 151 cases.
• 168,884 people are 40 to 59 — an increase of 101 cases.
• 78,090 people are 60 to 79 — an increase of 58 cases.
• 26,227 people are 80 and over — an increase of 15 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: 104
• Deaths reported in ages 40 to 59: 690
• Deaths reported in ages 60 to 79: 3,241
• Deaths reported in ages 80 and older: 5,858
• 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 474 out of 4,844 schools in Ontario with at least one COVID-19 case.

On Monday, Ontario reported 85 new COVID-19 cases in schools — with 75 among students, 7 among staff and three individuals were not identified. The data was collected between Thursday afternoon and Friday afternoon — a 24-hour period.

There are 918 active infections among both students and staff, compared with 913 active cases reported Friday.

Three schools are closed as a result of positive cases.