Ontario Reports Fewer than 600 New COVID-19 Cases as Test Positivity Drops | The Canadian News

Ontario reported 593 new COVID-19 cases on Wednesday, the second day in a row the count is below 600 even with a notable increase in testing. The total number of provincial cases now stands at 576,389.

Of the 593 new cases registered, the data showed that 348 were unvaccinated, 44 were partially vaccinated, 146 were fully vaccinated, and the vaccination status of 55 people was unknown.

According to Wednesday report, 141 cases were recorded in Toronto, 61 in the Peel region, 46 in Ottawa, 45 in Windsor-Essex, 39 in the York region, 38 in Hamilton and 34 in Niagara.

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 9,629 with four deaths occurring in the past month and one death occurring more than a month ago due to data cleansing, Ontario’s health ministry said.

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

At 8 p.m. Tuesday, 35,691 vaccines (15,171 for a first injection and 20,520 for a second injection) were administered on the last day.

There are more than 10.2 million people fully immunized with two doses, representing 78.4% of the eligible population (12 years and over). The coverage of the first dose is 84.6%.

Meanwhile, 560,824 Ontario residents were reported to have recovered from COVID-19, which is about 97 percent of known cases. Resolved cases increased by 755 from the previous day.

Active cases in Ontario now stand at 5,936, down from the day before when it was at 6,103, and are also down from Sept. 8 when it was at 6,040. At the peak of the second wave coronavirus surge in January, active cases reached just over 30,000. In the third wave in April, active cases exceeded 43,000.

The seven-day average has now hit 722, which is an increase from yesterday’s 717, but is down from last week when it was 732. A month ago, the seven-day average was around 500. .

The government said 33,220 tests were processed in the last 24 hours, the highest number of tests since early June. There is currently an accumulation of 18,006 tests awaiting results.

The positivity of the test reached 2.5 percent. Last week, the positivity of the test was 3.3 percent.

Ontario Hospitalizations

Ontario reported 346 people in general hospital wards with COVID-19 (17 fewer than the day before) with 188 intensive care unit patients (four fewer) and 165 ventilator ICU patients (one fewer).

Provincial officials recently announced that they would begin to include the vaccination status of those hospitalized due to COVID-19 as part of their daily COVID-19 data reports. They noted that the new dataset will grow and improve over time as more information is collected.

For those in general hospital wards with COVID, 148 were not vaccinated, 7 were partially vaccinated, and 35 were fully vaccinated. For those in ICU, 116 were not vaccinated, while 10 were partially vaccinated and 10 were fully vaccinated.

At the peak of the third wave, which was the worst wave of hospitalizations, the province saw up to 900 ICU patients with COVID. Data from the province has recorded that 5,734 patients in total have ever been in the ICU with 29,470 patients who have been hospitalized for COVID since the start of the pandemic.

Worrisome variants in Ontario

Officials have listed disaggregated data for the new VOCs (variants of interest) detected so far in the province, consisting of:

VOC B.1.1.7 ‘Alpha’ (first detected in UK): 146,451 variant cases, of which four cases were eliminated. This strain dominated the third wave of Ontario.

“Delta” VOC B.1.617.2 (first detected in India): 15,689 variant cases, representing an increase of 411 from the previous day. This strain dominates the fourth wave of Ontario.

VOC B.1.351 “Beta” (first detected in South Africa): 1,502 variant cases, unchanged from the previous day.

“Gamma” the P.1 VOC (detected for the first time in Brazil): 5,227 variant cases, which remains unchanged from the previous day.

NOTE: It takes several days for positive COVID-19 tests to be retested to determine the exact variant. Therefore, there may be more variant cases than general cases in the daily reports.

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

• 287,246 people are men, an increase of 285 cases.
• 285,142 people are women, an increase of 279 cases.
• 15,875 people are under the age of four, an increase of 31 cases.
• 28,330 people are between the ages of 5 and 11, an increase of 64 cases.
• 51,422 people are between 12 and 19 years old, an increase of 54 cases.
• 217,547 people are between the ages of 20 and 39, an increase of 253 cases.
• 162,455 people are between 40 and 59 years old, an increase of 132 cases.
• 75,021 people are between 60 and 79 years old, an increase of 48 cases.
• 25,633 people are 80 years or older, an increase of 11 cases.
• The province notes that not all cases have a reported age or sex.

Here’s a breakdown of total COVID-19 related deaths by age:

• Deaths reported in children under 19 years: 5
• Deaths reported ages 20 to 39: 94
• Deaths reported ages 40 to 59: 644
• Deaths reported ages 60 to 79: 3,125
• Deaths reported in 80 years or more: 5,760
• The province indicates that there may be a delay in the notification of deaths and data

Cases Among Ontario School Staff and Students

In the meantime, government figures show There are currently 299 of the 4,844 schools in Ontario with at least one case of COVID-19.

On Wednesday, Ontario reported 168 new cases of COVID-19 in schools, with 145 among students, 15 among staff, and 8 cases among people who were not identified.

There are 476 active infections among both students and staff, an increase from 324 active cases reported the previous day.

There are no schools closed as a result of positive cases.

Cases, Deaths, and Outbreaks in Ontario Long-Term Care Homes

According to the Ministry of Long-Term Care, 3,806 deaths have been reported among residents and patients in long-term care homes in Ontario, representing an increase of one death from the previous day. Thirteen virus-related deaths in total have been reported among staff.

There are seven current outbreaks in households, which have not changed from the previous day.

The ministry also noted that there are currently 41 active cases among long-term care residents and 23 active cases among staff: an increase of 12 and a decrease of one, respectively, in the last day.

More to come.

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