Ontario reports just under 600 new COVID-19 cases, 5 more deaths

Ontario is reporting 598 new COVID-19 cases on Friday, as case counts week over week continue to rise. The provincial case total now stands at 605,846.

For comparison, last Friday saw 563 new cases and the previous Friday saw 419. All three Friday’s saw similar testing volumes in the 30,000 range.

Of the 598 new cases recorded, the data showed 298 were unvaccinated people, 24 were partially vaccinated people, 222 were fully vaccinated people and for 54 people the vaccination status was unknown.

According to Friday’s report, 63 cases were recorded in Toronto, 55 in Simcoe Muskoka, 43 each in Peel Region and Windsor-Essex, 37 each in Ottawa and Durham Region, 35 in Southwestern, 32 in York Region. 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 9,921 as five more deaths were recorded.

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

As of 8 p.m. on Thursday, 13,468 vaccines (4,804 for a first shot and 8,664 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 85.3 per cent of the eligible (12 and older) population. First dose coverage stands at 88.6 per cent.

Meanwhile, 591,525 Ontario residents were reported to have recovered from COVID-19, which is about 98 per cent of known cases. Resolved cases increased by 462 from the previous day.

Active cases in Ontario now stand at 4,400 — up from the previous day when it was at 4,269, and is up from Nov. 5 when it was at 3,395. 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 537, which is up from the week prior when it was 404. A month ago, the seven-day average was around 500.

The government said 30,230 tests were processed in the previous 24 hours. There are 11,008 tests currently under investigation.

Test positivity hit 2.5 per cent. Last week, test positivity was at 1.8 per cent.

Hospitalizations in Ontario

Ontario reported 207 people in general hospital wards with COVID-19 (down by four from the previous day) with 130 patients in intensive care units (down by two) and 107 patients in intensive care units on a ventilator (down by one).

As of Thursday, there were 13 patients from Saskatchewan in Ontario — 12 of them in ICUs, officials noted.

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.

For those in general hospital wards with COVID, 74 were unvaccinated, 14 were partially vaccinated and 49 were fully vaccinated. For those in ICUs, 59 were unvaccinated while 3 were partially vaccinated and 9 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: 22052 variant cases, which is up by 45 since the previous day. This strain is dominating Ontario’s fourth wave.

Alpha: 146,508 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.

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

• 302,872 people are male — an increase of 289 cases.
• 300,816 people are female — an increase of 285 cases.
• 17,434 people are under the age of four — an increase of 16 cases.
• 32,722 people are 5 to 11 — an increase of 94 cases.
• 54,002 people are 12 to 19 — an increase of 40 cases.
• 227,502 people are 20 to 39 — an increase of 194 cases.
• 169,421 people are 40 to 59 — an increase of 167 cases.
• 78,342 people are 60 to 79 — an increase of 70 cases.
• 26,316 people are 80 and over — an increase of 17 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: 105
• Deaths reported in ages 40 to 59: 692
• Deaths reported in ages 60 to 79: 3,249 (+4)
• Deaths reported in ages 80 and older: 5,868 (+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 489 out of 4,844 schools in Ontario with at least one COVID-19 case.

On Friday, Ontario reported 95 new COVID-19 cases in schools — with 84 among students, 9 among staff and two individuals were not identified. The data was collected between Wednesday afternoon and Thursday afternoon — a 24-hour period.

There are 985 active infections among both students and staff, compared with 974 active cases reported the previous day.

Two schools are closed as a result of positive cases.