Ontario reports 552 new COVID-19 cases, 3 more deaths

Ontario is reporting 552 new COVID-19 cases on Monday, as case counts week over week continue to rise. The provincial case total now stands at 607,725.

For comparison, last Monday saw 480 new cases and the previous Monday saw 422. All three Monday’s saw similar testing volumes in the 20,000 range.

Of the 552 new cases recorded, the data showed 286 were unvaccinated people, 23 were partially vaccinated people, 212 were fully vaccinated people and for 31 people the vaccination status was unknown.

According to Monday’s report, 85 cases were recorded in Toronto, 51 in Peel Region, 49 in York Region, 44 in Simcoe Muskoka, 37 in Ottawa and 30 each in Niagara Region and Windsor-Essex All other local public health units reported fewer than 30 new cases in the provincial report.

The death toll in the province has risen to 9,937 as three more deaths were recorded.

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

As of 8 p.m. on Sunday, 7,251 vaccines (2,541 for a first shot and 4,710 for a second shot) were administered in the last day.

There are more than 11.1 million people fully immunized with two doses, which is 85.5 per cent of the eligible (12 and older) population. First dose coverage stands at 88.7 per cent.

Meanwhile, 592,803 Ontario residents were reported to have recovered from COVID-19, which is around 97 per cent of known cases. Resolved cases increased by 342 from the previous day.

Active cases in Ontario now stand at 4,985 — up from the previous day when it was at 4,778, and is up from Nov. 8 when it was at 4,040. 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 573, which is up from the week prior when it was 476. A month ago, the seven-day average was around 450.

The government said 21,475 tests were processed in the previous 24 hours. There are 6,576 tests currently under investigation.

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

Hospitalizations in Ontario

Ontario reported 138 people in general hospital wards with COVID-19 (up by 12 from the previous day) with 141 patients in intensive care units (up by eight) and 107 patients in intensive care units on a ventilator (up by six).

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 weekend data the latest figures come from Saturday. For those in general hospital wards with COVID, 78 were unvaccinated, 16 were partially vaccinated and 69 were fully vaccinated. For those in ICUs, 64 were unvaccinated while 3 were partially vaccinated and 13 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:

Delta: 22,753 variant cases, which is up by 261 since the previous day. This strain is dominating Ontario’s fourth wave.

Alpha: 146,509 variant cases, which is unchanged since the previous day. This strain dominated Ontario’s third wave.

Beta: 1,503 variant cases, which is unchanged since the previous day.

Gamma: 5,231 variant cases, which is unchanged since the previous day.

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

• 303,812 people are male — an increase of 259 cases.
• 301,750 people are female — an increase of 291 cases.
• 17,525 people are under the age of four — an increase of 30 cases.
• 33,011 people are 5 to 11 — an increase of 87 cases.
• 54,171 people are 12 to 19 — an increase of 50 cases.
• 228,038 people are 20 to 39 — an increase of 161 cases.
• 169,902 people are 40 to 59 — an increase of 149 cases.
• 78,585 people are 60 to 79 — an increase of 59 cases.
• 26,385 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: 107
• Deaths reported in ages 40 to 59: 693
• Deaths reported in ages 60 to 79: 3,257
• Deaths reported in ages 80 and older: 5,873
• 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 488 out of 4,844 schools in Ontario with at least one COVID-19 case.

On Monday, Ontario reported 86 new COVID-19 cases in schools — with 77 among students and 9 among staff. The data was collected between Thursday afternoon and Friday afternoon — a 24-hour period.

There are 1,006 active infections among both students and staff, compared with 985 active cases reported the previous day.

Four schools are closed as a result of positive cases.