Ontario reports 788 new COVID-19 cases, 3 more deaths

Ontario is reporting 788 new COVID-19 cases on Monday, as the counts continue to rise week over week. The provincial case total now stands at 617,803.

For comparison, last Monday saw 627 new cases and the previous Monday saw 552. All three Monday’s saw similar testing volumes in the 20,000 range.

Of the 788 new cases recorded, the data showed 412 were unvaccinated people, 27 were partially vaccinated people, 315 were fully vaccinated people and for 34 people the vaccination status was unknown.

According to Monday’s report, 106 cases were recorded in Toronto, 84 in Windsor-Essex, 80 in Simcoe Muskoka, 49 in Peel Region, 48 in York Region and 47 in KFLA. All other local public health units reported fewer than 45 new cases in the provincial report.

The death toll in the province has risen to 9,997 as three more deaths were reported.

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

As of 8 p.m. on Sunday, 22,442 vaccines (19,375 for a first shot and 3,067 for a second shot) were administered in the last day.

There are more than 11.2 million people fully immunized with two doses, which is 86.3 per cent of the aged 12 and older population. First dose coverage stands at 89.7 per cent.

Dr. Kieran Moore, Ontario’s chief medical officer of health, told reporters on Monday that 6.4 per cent of children aged 5 to 11 have already been vaccinated since doses went into arms late last week.

Meanwhile, 600,990 Ontario residents were reported to have recovered from COVID-19, which is around 97 per cent of known cases. Resolved cases increased by 453 from the previous day.

Active cases in Ontario now stand at 6,816 — up from the previous day when it was at 6,484, and up from Nov. 22 when it was at 5,597. 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 784, which is up from the week prior when it was 656. A month ago, the seven-day average was around 350.

The government said 26,016 tests were processed in the previous 24 hours. There are 9,376 tests currently under investigation.

Test positivity hit 3.5 per cent. Last week, test positivity was at 3.4 per cent.

Hospitalizations in Ontario

Ontario reported 145 people in general hospital wards with COVID-19 (up by 23 from the previous day) with 148 patients in intensive care units (up by 13) and 131 patients in intensive care units on a ventilator (up by 13).

As of Sunday, there are 5 patients from Saskatchewan in Ontario hospitals, three of whom are in the ICU.

Ontario Health officials have recently said intensive care occupancy can hit between 250 or 300 patients before the health care system would be impacted and require ramping down some non-urgent surgeries and procedures.

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.

Due to the weekend, the latest data comes from Saturday. For those in general hospital wards with COVID, 83 were unvaccinated, 8 were partially vaccinated and 48 were fully vaccinated. For those in ICUs, 60 were unvaccinated while 3 were partially vaccinated and 11 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:

• 308,816 people are male — an increase of 396 cases.
• 306,808 people are female — an increase of 390 cases.
• 18,013 people are under the age of four — an increase of 38 cases.
• 34,915 people are 5 to 11 — an increase of 159 cases.
• 54,904 people are 12 to 19 — an increase of 65 cases.
• 230,914 people are 20 to 39 — an increase of 217 cases.
• 172,428 people are 40 to 59 — an increase of 180 cases.
• 79,920 people are 60 to 79 — an increase of 111 cases.
• 26,601 people are 80 and over — an increase of 18 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: Seven
• Deaths reported in ages 20 to 39: 106
• Deaths reported in ages 40 to 59: 695
• Deaths reported in ages 60 to 79: 3,289
• Deaths reported in ages 80 and older: 5,899
• 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 717 out of 4,844 schools in Ontario with at least one COVID-19 case.

On Monday, Ontario reported 131 new COVID-19 cases in schools — with 120 among students, 10 among staff and one individual was not identified. The data was collected between Thursday afternoon and Friday afternoon — a 24 hour period.

There are 1,591 active infections among both students and staff, compared with 1,541 active cases reported the previous day.

Sixteen schools are closed as a result of positive cases.