Ontario logs more than 2,000 new COVID-19 cases, 73 more deaths

Ontario logs more than 2,000 COVID-19 cases More than 2,000 new COVID-19 cases were logged by health officials in Ontario on Saturday.

TORONTO — Ontario has recorded more than 2,000 new COVID-19 cases and 73 more deaths.

On Saturday, provincial health officials logged 2,063 novel coronavirus infections, marking a slight increase from the 1,837 cases recorded on Friday.

Before that, there were 2,093 cases logged on Thursday, 1,670 on Wednesday and 1,740 on Tuesday.

The province’s seven-day average for number of cases recorded is now 1,968.

There were 59,594 COVID-19 tests completed in the province in the last-recorded 24-hour period.

The province’s test positivity rate now stands at about 3.3 per cent, according to the Ministry of Health.

Of the new cases logged Saturday, 713 are in Toronto, 379 are in Peel Region and 178 are in York Region. The province’s epidemiological summary does point out that Toronto Public Health is “reporting 230 additional case counts from a previous date” due to technical issues.

Other areas that recorded more than 50 cases of the disease on Saturday include Ottawa (82), Durham Region (89), Hamilton (88), Niagara (79), Waterloo Region (71), Halton Region (55), and Simcoe Muskoka (52).

Saturday’s count brings the total number of lab-confirmed cases in Ontario to 266,363, including deaths and recoveries.

With the 73 new deaths confirmed by health officials on Saturday, the province’s death toll is now 6,145. Of the new deaths, 24 were residents of long-term care homes.

According to the province, there are at least 1,273 patients infected with the novel coronavirus in Ontario hospitals as of Saturday.

Of those patients, 353 are in the intensive care unit (ICU) and 216 of those 353 patients are breathing with the assistance of a ventilator.

At this time last week, there were 1,501 hospitalized COVID-19 patients, 396 of which were in the ICU and 299 were on a ventilator.

On Saturday, health officials deemed 2,623 more cases of the disease to be resolved, bringing Ontario’s number of recovered patients up to 240,494.

There are currently 19,724 active cases of COVID-19 in Ontario.

The government also said there have been 57 cases of the U.K. variant, also known as B.1.1.7, found in Ontario as of Saturday.

Thus far, 336,828 doses of the COVID-19 vaccine have been administered in Ontario, including 9,373 doses administered in the previous day. The vaccine requires two doses. In Ontario, 67,787 total vaccinations have been completed as of Saturday.