Ontario reports 422 new COVID-19 cases, 3 more deaths

Ontario is reporting 422 new COVID-19 cases on Monday, a slight uptick from a week ago but is still under 500. The provincial case total now stands at 600,377.

For comparison, last Monday saw 326 new cases (a jump of nearly 100 cases) and the previous Monday saw 373.

Of the 422 new cases recorded, the data showed 225 were unvaccinated people, 13 were partially vaccinated people, 161 were fully vaccinated people and for 23 people the vaccination status was unknown.

According to Monday’s report, 61 cases were recorded in Toronto, 47 in Peel Region, 41 in York Region, 38 in Ottawa, 25 in Simcoe Muskoka, 21 in Southwestern, and 20 in Hamilton.

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 9,874 as three new deaths were recorded.

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

As of 8 p.m. on Sunday, 7,427 vaccines (2,335 for a first shot and 5,092 for a second shot) were administered in the last day.

There are more than 11 million people fully immunized with two doses, which is 84.5 per cent of the eligible (12 and older) population. First dose coverage stands at 88.2 per cent.

Meanwhile, 587,344 Ontario residents were reported to have recovered from COVID-19, which is about 98 per cent of known cases. Resolved cases increased by 275 from the previous day.

Active cases in Ontario now stand at 3,159 — up from the previous day when it was at 3,015, and is down from Oct. 25 when it was at 3,215. 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 363, which is down from the week prior when it was 372. A month ago, the seven-day average was around 600.

The government said 19,840 tests were processed in the previous 24 hours. There are 6,650 tests currently under investigation.

Test positivity hit 1.8 per cent. Last week, test positivity was at 1.6 per cent.

Hospitalizations in Ontario

Ontario reported 134 people in general hospital wards with COVID-19 (up by 30 from the previous day) with 133 patients in intensive care units (unchanged) and 108 patients in intensive care units on a ventilator (unchanged).

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.

Provincial officials announced they would start including the vaccination status of those hospitalized due to COVID-19 as part of their daily COVID-19 data reporting. They noted the new dataset will grow and improve over time as more information is collected. There may be a discrepancy due to how and when the information for both is collected.

Due to the weekend, the latest data come from Saturday. For those in general hospital wards with COVID, 90 were unvaccinated, 11 were partially vaccinated and 36 were fully vaccinated. For those in ICUs, 66 were unvaccinated while 5 were partially vaccinated and 13 were fully vaccinated.

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): 146,507 variant cases, which is up by 2 since the previous day. This strain dominated Ontario’s third wave.

“Delta” the B.1.617.2 VOC (first detected in India): 21,196 variant cases, which is up by 59 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.

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:

• 300,133 people are male — an increase of 213 cases.
• 298,099 people are female — an increase of 209 cases.
• 17,175 people are under the age of four — an increase of 21 cases.
• 31,896 people are 5 to 11 — an increase of 71 cases.
• 53,592 people are 12 to 19 — an increase of 41 cases.
• 225,768 people are 20 to 39 — an increase of 139 cases.
• 168,060 people are 40 to 59 — an increase of 88 cases.
• 77,661 people are 60 to 79 — an increase of 55 cases.
• 26,117 people are 80 and over — an increase of 6 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: 103
• Deaths reported in ages 40 to 59: 687
• Deaths reported in ages 60 to 79: 3,232
• Deaths reported in ages 80 and older: 5,845
• 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 515 out of 4,844 schools in Ontario with at least one COVID-19 case.

On Monday, Ontario reported 74 new COVID-19 cases in schools — with 68 among students and 6 among staff. The data was collected between Thursday afternoon and Friday afternoon — a 24-hour period.

There are 973 active infections among both students and staff, a decrease from 1,004active cases reported Friday.

Three schools are closed as a result of positive cases.

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

According to the Ontario Ministry of Long-Term Care, there have been 3,824 deaths reported among residents and patients in long-term care homes across Ontario, which is unchanged since the previous day. Thirteen virus-related deaths in total have been reported among staff.

There are 3 current outbreaks in homes, which is unchanged from the previous day.

The ministry also indicated there are currently 14 active cases among long-term care residents and 11 active cases among staff — also all unchanged since the last day.

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