Ontario is reporting 306 new COVID-19 cases on Wednesday, the smallest daily increase since early August. The provincial case total now stands at 593,020.
Wednesday’s case count is the lowest seen since Aug. 5 when 213 new cases were recorded.
Of the 306 new cases recorded, the data showed 117 were unvaccinated people, 14 were partially vaccinated people, 104 were fully vaccinated people and for 11 people the vaccination status was unknown.
According to Wednesday’s report, 68 cases were recorded in Toronto, 32 in Windsor-Essex, 29 in York Region, 20 in Ottawa, 18 in Peel Region, and 17 in Niagara 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 9,804 as 12 more deaths were recorded.
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Vaccinations, recoveries, testing, 7-day average in Ontario
As of 8 p.m. on Tuesday, 29,857 vaccines (10,974 for a first shot and 18,883 for a second shot) were administered in the last day.
There are more than 10.7 million people fully immunized with two doses, which is 82.5 per cent of the eligible (12 and older) population. First dose coverage stands at 87.1 per cent.
Meanwhile, 579,080 Ontario residents were reported to have recovered from COVID-19, which is about 97 per cent of known cases. Resolved cases increased by 527 from the previous day.
Active cases in Ontario now stand at 4,136— down from the previous day when it was at 4,369, and is down from Oct. 6 when it was at 4,579. 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 500, which is down from the week prior when it was 574. A month ago, the seven-day average was around 700.
The government said 23,219 tests were processed in the previous 24 hours. There are 16,051 tests currently under investigation.
Test positivity hit 1.7 per cent. Last week, test positivity was also at 1.7 per cent.
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Hospitalizations in Ontario
Ontario reported 242 people in general hospital wards with COVID-19 (up by 87 from the previous day) with 153 patients in intensive care units (up by four) and 124 patients in intensive care units on a ventilator (up by three).
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 recently 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.
For those in general hospital wards with COVID, 100 were unvaccinated, 11 were partially vaccinated and 33 were fully vaccinated. For those in ICUs, 68 were unvaccinated while 6 were partially vaccinated and 14 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): 146,492 variant cases, which is up by 5 since the previous day. This strain dominated Ontario’s third wave.
“Delta” the B.1.617.2 VOC (first detected in India): 19,448 variant cases, which is up by 30 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): 5,229 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:
- 295,269 people are male — an increase of 155 cases.
- 293,525 people are female — an increase of 156 cases.
- 16,808 people are under the age of four — an increase of 17 cases.
- 30,746 people are 5 to 11 — an increase of 51 cases.
- 52,971 people are 12 to 19 — an increase of 37 cases.
- 223,461 people are 20 to 39 — an increase of 87 cases.
- 166,219 people are 40 to 59 — an increase of 72 cases.
- 76,748 people are 60 to 79 — an increase of 33 cases.
- 25,960 people are 80 and over — an increase of 9 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: 98
- Deaths reported in ages 40 to 59: 679
- Deaths reported in ages 60 to 79: 3,196
- Deaths reported in ages 80 and older: 5,824
- 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 704 out of 4,844 schools in Ontario with at least one COVID-19 case.
On Wednesday, Ontario reported 269 new COVID-19 cases in schools — with 249 among students and 19 among staff with 1 case not identified.
There are 1,357 active infections among both students and staff, an increase from 1,234 active cases reported Tuesday.
Five 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 3,822 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 9 current outbreaks in homes, which is down by three from the previous day.
The ministry also indicated there are currently 29 active cases among long-term care residents and 20 active cases among staff — unchanged and down by one, respectively, in the last day.