Ontario logs fewer than 2,500 new COVID-19 cases over 2 days following long weekend

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TORONTO — Ontario logged just under 2,500 COVID-19 cases over the past two days, with Tuesday marking the lowest number of daily reported infections since the beginning of March.

Health officials reported 1,446 new COVID-19 cases on Monday and 1,039 cases on Tuesday. The last time the daily case count was this low in Ontario was on March 6, when fewer than 1,000 infections were reported.

Monday’s data was not released until today due to the Victoria Day holiday.

The rolling seven-day average of daily COVID-19 cases is now about 1,693, down from 2,813 a week ago.

There have also been 41 deaths in the last two days, bringing the total tally of COVID-19 deaths to 8,655.

Hospitalizations have continued to decline over the last two days, with 1,025 people being treated for the novel coronavirus as of Tuesday.

Of those patients, 662are in the intensive care unit and 498 are breathing with the assistance of a ventilator.

According to the Ministry of Health, the province’s positivity rate has remained at 6.4 per cent on both Monday and Tuesday, with nearly 20,200 tests on May 23 and nearly 16,900 tests completed on May 24.

The total number of lab-confirmed COVID-19 cases now stands at 524,590, including deaths and recoveries.

WHERE ARE THE NEW COVID-19 CASES?

The majority of the new infections over the past two days have been in the Greater Toronto Area.

According to the province’s epidemiology report, 712 of the cases on Monday and Tuesday were found in Toronto.

There were 624 cases in Peel Region and 174 in York Region.

The province also said that there are now 120,130 cases of the B.1.1.7. variant in Ontario, with an additional 2,189 infections identified in lab-confirmed positive tests over the last two days.

There are now 817 cases of the B.1.351 variant and 2,462 cases of the P.1. variant.

The province does not publicly report the number of B.1.617 infections, despite multiple cases being identified according to the government.

LESS THAN 200,000 VACCINES ADMINISTERED OVER 2 DAYS

According to the provincial data, officials administered a combined 186,032 doses of COVID-19 vaccine over the last two 24-hour periods.

The province has previously said they have the capacity to administer 150,000 doses per day.

More than 8.2 million people have received at least one dose of a COVID-19 vaccine as of Tuesday.

A little more than 544,200 people have received both shots and are considered fully vaccinated.