Ontario reports 139 new COVID-19 cases, 11 more deaths

Ontario is reporting 139 new COVID-19 cases on Wednesday, the third day in a row daily cases have dipped below 200. The provincial case total now stands at 551,125.

According to Wednesday’s report, 26 cases were recorded in Toronto, 19 in Waterloo Region, 18 in Peel Region, 15 in York Region, 12 in Hamilton, 11 in Durham Region and 10 in Windsor-Essex.

All other local public health units reported fewer than 10 new cases in the provincial report.

The death toll in the province has risen to 9,360 as 11 more deaths were recorded. However, the ministry of health indicated seven of those deaths were from 2020 based on data cleaning.

As of 8 p.m. on Tuesday, 60,094 vaccines (12,086 for a first shot and 48,008 for a second shot) were administered in the last day.

There are more than 9.1 million people fully immunized with two doses which is 70.1 per cent of the eligible (12+) population. First dose coverage stands at 80.6 per cent.

Meanwhile, 540,075 Ontario residents were reported to have recovered from COVID-19, which is about 98 per cent of known cases. Resolved cases increased by 155 from the previous day.

Active cases in Ontario now stand at 1,690 — down from the previous day when it was at 1,717, but is up from July 28 when it was at 1,378. 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 198 which is down from yesterday at 201, but is up from last week at 161. A month ago, the seven-day average was around 300.

The government said 17,115 tests were processed in the last 24 hours. There is currently a backlog of 8,788 tests awaiting results. A total of 16,624,968 tests have been completed since the start of the pandemic.

Test positivity for Wednesday hit 1.2 per cent. Last week, test positivity was at 0.8 per cent.

Ontario reported 112 people are hospitalized with COVID-19 (up by 41 from the previous day) with 108 patients in intensive care units (up by two) and 78 patients in ICUs on a ventilator (up by one).

Variants of concern in Ontario

Officials have listed breakdown data for the new VOCs (variants of concern) detected so far in the province which consist of the B.1.1.7 (now named by WHO as “Alpha” and was first detected in the United Kingdom), B.1.351 (now named by WHO as “Beta” and was first detected in South Africa), P.1 (now named by WHO as “Gamma” and was first detected in Brazil), and B.1.617.2 (now named by WHO as “Delta” and was first detected in India).

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“Alpha” the B.1.1.7 VOC: 145,538 variant cases, which is up by 2 since the previous day,

“Beta” the B.1.351 VOC: 1,493 variant cases, which is unchanged since the previous day.

“Gamma” the P.1 VOC: 5,164 variant cases, which is up by 1 since the previous day.

“Delta” B.1.617.2 VOC: 4,909 variant cases, which is up by 25 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:

• 274,717 people are male — an increase of 75 cases.
• 272,716 people are female — an increase of 66 cases.
• 89,342 people are 19 and under — an increase of 48 cases.
• 206,465 people are 20 to 39 — an increase of 54 cases.
• 156,951 people are 40 to 59 — an increase of 25 cases.
• 73,052 people are 60 to 79 — an increase of 12 cases.
• 25,223 people are 80 and over — no new 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: 4
• Deaths reported in ages 20 to 39: 87
• Deaths reported in ages 40 to 59: 606
• Deaths reported in ages 60 to 79: 3,007
• Deaths reported in ages 80 and older: 5,655
• The province notes there may be a reporting delay for deaths and data

Cases, deaths and outbreaks in Ontario long-term care homes

According to the Ministry of Long-Term Care, there have been 3,793 deaths reported among residents and patients in long-term care homes across Ontario which is an increase of two deaths since yesterday. Thirteen virus-related deaths in total have been reported among staff.

There are 5 current outbreaks in homes, which is up by one from the previous day.

The ministry also indicated there are currently 10 active cases among long-term care residents and 15 active cases among staff — up by one and up by five, respectively, in the last day.

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