Fewer than 1,200 new cases of COVID-19 reported in Ontario, another 67 deaths logged

CTV National News: Toronto’s post-COVID recovery A study shows that Toronto’s post-COVID recovery is lagging behind other major cities. Andrew Brennan reports.

TORONTO — Ontario is reporting fewer than 1,200 new cases of COVID-19 Wednesday and 67 more deaths related to the disease.

While the 1,172 new cases represent an increase over Tuesday’s report when only 745 infections were added, the government said that yesterday’s count was an “underestimation” due to a data migration at Toronto Public Health.

This pushes the province’s lab-confirmed case total to 272,097, including 6,305 deaths and 248,981 recoveries.

Of the 67 deaths reported Wednesday, 29 involved residents of a long-term care home.

Ontario’s seven-day average for number of cases reported is now 1,675. That number was as high as 2,205 one week ago today.

With 52,418 tests processed in the last 24 hours, the province’s COVID-19 positivity rate stands at 3.3 per cent.

There are currently 16,811 active cases of the novel coronavirus in Ontario.

Where are the new COVID-19 cases?

Most of the new cases were found in a handful of regions across the province.

The Ministry of Health says that Toronto reported 444 new infections. A day earlier, -119 cases were added due to the aforementioned data migration.

There were 199 more cases found in Peel Region, down from the 334 reported on Tuesday.

York Region reported 110 cases, down from 124.

A number of other regions reported new cases numbers in the mid to low double digits.

There are 1,066 people in hospital with COVID-19. Of those patients, 336 are being treated in intensive care and 254 are breathing with the assistance of a ventilator. Admissions to the ICU have been trending downwards in recent weeks and reached an all-time high of 400 on Jan. 19.

Update on COVID-19 vaccinations in Ontario

The government says that 74,994 people are full vaccinated against COVID-19 since inoculations began in December.

In total, 348,331 shots have been administered. At least 3,716 of those shots were administered in the last 24-hour period.

The government announced Tuesday that it would be pushing back its plan to have first doses administered in all nursing homes and high-risk retirement facilities from Feb. 5 to Feb. 10, citing a shortage in vaccine supply.