Ontario logs more than 800 new COVID-19 cases for second straight day

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TORONTO — Ontario health officials are reporting more than 800 new COVID-19 cases for the second straight day.

The province confirmed 807 new cases of the novel coronavirus on Friday, which comes just a day after officials logged the highest daily count in the fourth wave so far with 865 new infections.

Officials also reported 656 new cases on Wednesday, 525 new cases on Tuesday and 694 new cases on Monday.

Ontario’s rolling seven-day average now stands at 731, up from 665 at this point last week. The province’s seven-day average has been increasing for weeks now.

With 28,786 tests processed in the past 24 hours, the Ministry of Health says the positivity rate in the province is 3.2 per cent.

Of the new infections reported Friday, 628 cases involved people who are either unvaccinated, partially vaccinated or their vaccination status is unknown. The remaining 179 infections involved people who are fully vaccinated.

The province recorded six new deaths on Friday, bringing the total death tally in the province to 9,536.

Three of the six deaths reported on Friday occurred in the last week and the remaining three occurred more than a week ago, the Ministry of Health said. The deaths are being reported as part of a data catch-up.

The province stated at least 326 people are in hospital due to COVID-19, including 34 people who are fully vaccinated and 292 people who are either not fully vaccinated or have an unknown vaccination status.

At least 169 patients are in intensive care in Ontario hospitals and 105 are breathing with the assistance of a ventilator.

The province deemed 738 more cases of the disease to be resolved as of Friday, bringing Ontario’s number of recovered patients up to 552,248.

Today’s report brings the total number of lab-confirmed cases in Ontario to 567,878, including deaths and recoveries.

WHERE ARE THE NEW COVID-19 CASES IN ONTARIO

Most of the new cases were found in parts of the Greater Toronto Area. Officials reported 175 new cases in Toronto, 136 new cases in Peel Region, 85 new cases in York Region and 50 new cases in Durham Region.

Officials also reported 72 new cases in Windsor-Essex, 49 new cases in Ottawa and 46 new cases in Hamilton. All other regions reported fewer than 30 new cases of the disease.

The latest modelling data from the province showed that Ontario is facing a "substantial" fourth wave of the pandemic and could see daily case counts reach 9,000 by October in a worst-case scenario if residents do not reduce their contacts.

In a more optimistic scenario, based on a 30 per cent reduction in contacts, the predictions found that case counts could begin declining within days and dip under 500 by October.

The forecasters are recommending that large gatherings be limited and that work-from-home arrangements continue in order to reduce contacts.

VARIANTS OF CONCERN IN ONTARIO UPDATE

The province detected several more cases of variants of concern on Friday. Officials are analyzing cases on an ongoing basis to detect mutations and variants of concerns.

The province confirmed three new cases of Alpha B.1.1.7 on Friday. The total case count for the strain now stands at 146,428.

Officials identified no new cases of the Beta B.1.351 or the Gamma P.1 variants and so their total case counts remained at 1,501 and 5,222, respectively.

As for the Delta variant, also known as the B.1.617 variant, officials reported 325 new cases of the strain, which brings the total number in the province to 11,319.

MORE THAN 10M PEOPLE FULLY VACCINATED IN ONTARIO

The province reports that 10,006,367 people in Ontario have received both doses of a COVID-19 vaccine and are now considered fully vaccinated against the disease.

In the last 24-hour period, officials said 43,855 doses of the vaccine were administered to Ontario residents.

Just over 20.8 million vaccine doses have been administered in the province since the rollout began last year.