New COVID-19 cases in Ontario jump above 3,800 as province surpasses 8,000 deaths

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TORONTO — Ontario is reporting more than 3,800 new COVID-19 cases as the province surpasses more than 8,000 deaths since the pandemic began.

Health officials reported 3,871 new COVID-19 cases on Thursday, which is an increase from the 3,480 infections on Wednesday and 3,265 on Tuesday.

With 56,939 tests completed in the previous day, the province said the test positivity rate stands at about 7.6 per cent. This is slightly higher than Wednesday's test positivity rate, which was 7.2 per cent.

Ontario's seven-day rolling average now is currently 3,810, down from 4,176 a week ago.

As of Thursday, there are 2,248 people hospitalized with COVID-19. Of those patients, 884 are being treated in intensive care units and 620 are breathing with the assistance of a ventilator.

Ontario logged 41 more COVID-19-related deaths in the previous 24-hour period, which bring the total number of fatalities to 8,029.

The province also deemed 4,245 more cases of the disease to be resolved as of Thursday, bringing Ontario's number of recovered patients up to 413,010.

Thursday's report brings the total number of lab-confirmed cases in Ontario to 459,477 including deaths and recoveries.

Most of the new cases reported on Thursday are in hot spot regions. Health officials reported 1,172 new cases in Toronto, 901 in Peel Region, 392 in York Region, 292 in Durham Region, and 147 in Ottawa.

Thursday also marks the halfway point of Ontario's stay-at-home order, which is set to expire on May 20.

Several other regions reported infection totals in the triple digits, including Durham, which reported 221 new cases, and Ottawa, which reported 180 new cases.

There were 117 new infections reported in Simcoe Muskoka, while London logged 101 new infections. There was 103 new COVID-19 cases in Hamilton, 129 in Halton Region, and 104 in Niagara.

Meanwhile, Ontario confirmed an additional 2,589 cases of the B.1.1.7. COVID-19 variant on Thursday, bringing the total number to 62,944.

Officials also recorded an additional 96 cases of the P.1. strain and 23 of the B.1.351 mutation.

Ontario does not currently report how many cases of the B.1.617 variant, originally found in India, are found in the province.

Ontario surpasses 5M vaccine doses

The province reports that 368,403 people in Ontario have received both doses of the COVID-19 vaccine and are now considered immunized against the disease.

In the last 24-hour period, officials said that 120,567 doses of the vaccine were administered to residents in the province.

There have been 5,027,770 doses administered since vaccines became available.

The province has repeatedly said it has the capacity to administer 150,000 doses per day.

Since COVID-19 vaccines starting rolling out in Ontario, 4,907,203 people have received at least one dose.