Ontario is reporting 10,436 new COVID cases on Wednesday, setting a new record for the most cases recorded within 24 hours. The provincial case total now stands at 725,841.
Wednesday’s count edged out the previous single-day high reported on Christmas Day when 10,412 new cases were recorded.
Case counts due to the Omicron variant have surged over the last couple weeks. For comparison, last Wednesday saw 4,383 new cases and the Wednesday before that saw 1,808.
Over the last three days, there were 8,825 new infections on Tuesday, 9,418 reported on Monday, and 9,826 new cases on Sunday. The seven-day average has now reached 9,183.
The Ontario government released its full dataset from the last five days due to the holidays, as only portions of data were released daily by the health minister and Public Health Ontario.
Of the 10,436 new cases recorded, the data showed 1,514 were unvaccinated people, 425 were partially vaccinated people, 8,221 were fully vaccinated people and for 276 people the vaccination status was unknown.
For the regional breakdown, 2,715 cases were recorded in Toronto, 1,252 in York Region, 1,066 in Peel Region, 644 in Ottawa, 524 in Durham Region, and 539 in Hamilton. All other local public health units reported fewer than 500 new cases in the provincial report.
Although ICU capacity has previously remained relatively stable, the number of people in ICUs and for general hospitalizations due to COVID-19 is now on the rise following the surge in cases.
Deaths, vaccinations, recoveries, testing, 7-day average in Ontario
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The death toll in the province has risen to 10,171 as three more virus-related deaths were reported.
As of 8 p.m. on Tuesday, there are more than 11.4 million people fully immunized with two doses, which is 88.1 per cent of the aged 12 and older population. First dose coverage stands at 90.7 per cent.
The province administered 176,349 doses in the last day. There are more than 3.2 million Ontarians who have received a booster shot.
For young children aged five to 11, first dose coverage stands at 41.8 per cent — 451,066 doses out of just over 1 million eligible children.
Meanwhile, 638,678 Ontario residents were reported to have recovered from COVID-19, which is 88 per cent of known cases. Resolved cases increased by 3,832 from the previous day.
Active cases in Ontario now stand at 76,992 — up from the previous day when it was at 70,391, and is up from Dec. 21 when it was at 25,702. 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 government said 59,259 tests were processed in the previous 24 hours. There are 74,535 tests currently under investigation.
Test positivity hit 26.9 per cent meaning more than 1 in 4 tests are coming back positive for COVID — the highest ever seen. Last week, test positivity was at 9.9 per cent.
Hospitalizations in Ontario
Ontario reported 726 people in general hospital wards with COVID-19 (up by 270 from the previous day) with 190 patients in intensive care units (up by three).
For comparison, in the third wave peak in April 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 among a population that was vastly unvaccinated.
Ontario Health officials have recently said intensive care occupancy can hit between 250 or 300 patients with COVID before the health care system would be impacted and require ramping down some non-urgent surgeries and procedures.
For those in general hospital wards with COVID, 150 were unvaccinated, 9 were partially vaccinated and 186 were fully vaccinated. For those in ICUs, 70 were unvaccinated while 2 were partially vaccinated and 35 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.
Here is a breakdown of the total cases in Ontario by gender and age:
- 362,284 people are male — an increase of 5,023 cases.
- 360,844 people are female — an increase of 5,361 cases.
- 21,396 people are under the age of four — an increase of 325 cases.
- 45,730 people are 5 to 11 — an increase of 703 cases.
- 65,627 people are 12 to 19 — an increase of 1,126 cases.
- 276,791 people are 20 to 39 — an increase of 4,525 cases.
- 199,337 people are 40 to 59 — an increase of 2,698 cases.
- 88,874 people are 60 to 79 — an increase of 896 cases.
- 27,922 people are 80 and over — an increase of 156 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: Eight
- Deaths reported in ages 20 to 39: 113
- Deaths reported in ages 40 to 59: 726
- Deaths reported in ages 60 to 79: 3,365
- Deaths reported in ages 80 and older: 5,958
- The province notes there may be a reporting delay for deaths and data
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