Ontario reports under 200 new COVID-19 cases for 1st time since mid-September

Ontario is reporting 184 new COVID-19 cases on Wednesday, marking the first time the case count is below 200 in nearly 10 months.

The provincial case total now stands at 544,897 as the province, with the exception of Waterloo Region, enters Step 2 in the reopening plan.

The last time daily cases dipped below 200 was on Sept. 10 when 170 new cases were reported.

According to Wednesday’s report, 46 cases were recorded in Waterloo Region, 19 in Grey Bruce, 17 each in both Toronto and Hamilton and 16 in Peel Region.

All other local public health units reported fewer than 15 new cases in the provincial report.

The death toll in the province has risen to 9,168 as 14 more deaths were recorded.

As of 8 p.m. on Tuesday, more than 14.4 million total COVID-19 vaccine doses were administered. That marked another new record increase of 268,397 vaccines (23,696 for a first shot and 244,701 for a second shot) in the last day.

There are more than 4.8 million people fully immunized with two doses which is 39.2 per cent of the adult (18+) population. First dose adult coverage stands at 77.7 per cent.

Meanwhile, 533,472 Ontario residents were reported to have recovered from COVID-19, which is about 98 per cent of known cases. Resolved cases increased by 322 from the previous day.

There were more resolved cases than new cases on Wednesday.

Active cases in Ontario now stand at 2,257 — down from the previous day when it was at 2,409, and is down from June 23 when it was at 3,032. 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 268, which is down from yesterday’s at 278, and is down from last week at 316. A month ago, the seven-day average was around 1,100.

The government said 27,258 tests were processed in the last 24 hours. There is currently a backlog of 11,704 tests awaiting results. A total of 15,949,282 tests have been completed since the start of the pandemic.

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Test positivity for Wednesday hit 1 per cent, the last time it was that low was on Sept. 25 when it was also at 1 per cent. Last week, test positivity was at 1.2 per cent.

Ontario reported 251 people are hospitalized with COVID-19 (down by six from the previous day) with 271 patients in intensive care units (down by five) and 181 patients in ICUs on a ventilator (down by four). Hospitalizations have been on the decline since the third wave peak in April.

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).

“Alpha” the B.1.1.7 VOC: 143,444 variant cases, which is up by 63 since the previous day,

“Beta” the B.1.351 VOC: 1,365 variant cases, which is up by 50 since the previous day.

“Gamma” the P.1 VOC: 4,544 variant cases which is up by 105 since the previous day.

“Delta” B.1.617.2 VOC: 1,909  variant cases which is up by 205 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:

• 271,474 people are male — an increase of 86 cases.
• 269,629 people are female — an increase of 89 cases.
• 87,702 people are 19 and under — an increase of 49 cases.
• 204,089 people are 20 to 39 — an increase of 55 cases.
• 155,540 people are 40 to 59 — an increase of 50 cases.
• 72,402 people are 60 to 79 — an increase of 23 cases.
• 25,065 people are 80 and over — an increase of eight 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: 82
• Deaths reported in ages 40 to 59: 573 (+4)
• Deaths reported in ages 60 to 79: 2,916 (+8)
• Deaths reported in ages 80 and older: 5,592 (+2)
• The province notes there may be a reporting delay for deaths and data corrections or updates can result in death records being removed.

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

According to the Ministry of Long-Term Care, there have been 3,782 deaths reported among residents and patients in long-term care homes across Ontario which is unchanged since yesterday. Thirteen virus-related deaths in total have been reported among staff.

There are 3 current outbreaks in homes, which is a decrease of two from the previous day.

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

 

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