Fewer than 2,200 new cases of COVID-19 reported in Ontario for second straight day

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TORONTO — Ontario is reporting fewer than 2,200 new cases of COVID-19 for the second day in a row.

Health officials logged 2,170 infections Monday, marking a slight decrease from Sunday’s report when 2,199 were added.

Labs across the province processed 24,498 tests in the last 24 hours, which produced a positivity rate of 7.9 per cent, according to the Ministry of Health.

Since the beginning of the pandemic, Ontario has recorded 511,486 lab-confirmed cases of COVID-19, including 477,128 recoveries and 8,489 deaths. At least four of those deaths were reported in the previous day, which is the lowest daily death toll reported since March 22.

The seven-day average for number of cases reported stands at 2,352. A week ago, that number was 3,016. Right now, there are 25,869 active cases of the novel coronavirus across the province.

Where are the new COVID-19 cases?

Most of the cases reported by the province Monday were found in Toronto (566), Peel Region (556), and York Region (215).

High case counts were also reported in Durham Region (120) and Hamilton (101).

Ontario is currently under a stay-at-home order, which is set to expire on June 2 at the earliest.

Update on COVID-19 variants of concern in Ontario

Another 1,260 cases of the COVID-19 variant known as B.1.1.7 were confirmed in Ontario in the last 24-hour period.

Labs have confirmed 108,801 instances of the strain, which was first reported in the U.K., across the province since February.

Thirty-eight more infections of P.1 (Brazilian variant) and two infections of B.1.351 (South African variant) were also found, bringing their case totals to 2,021 and 679, respectively.

The province does not currently report the number of B.1.617 (Indian variant) cases in the province.

However, in a statement published Monday, Premier Doug Ford once again called on the federal government to impose stricter rules at international borders while citing the number of confirmed B.1.617 infections.

“As of last week, there are 45 confirmed cases of the B.1.617 variant in Ontario with more than 80 per cent directly linked to international travel and the remaining still under investigation,” he said.

“These are the ones we know about from a small sample size of cases, but there are likely many more that have now taken hold in our communities.”

A day earlier, Public Health Ontario confirmed to CP24 that the province will not develop a mass screening tool to easily and quickly detect the B.1.617 coronavirus variant. Instead, the province will lean on its existing ability to conduct whole genomic sequencing to map thousands of cases each week.