Ontario marks lowest COVID-19 daily case count in months with 304 new cases

CTV National News: O'Toole's new shadow cabinet Conservative Party Leader Erin O'Toole stated that all MPs in his new shadow cabinet will be vaccinated. CTV's Glen McGregor reports.

TORONTO — Ontario health officials are reporting 304 new cases of COVID-19 on Wednesday, marking the lowest case count seen in the province since early August.

Today’s case count comes after officials logged 328 new cases on Tuesday and 373 new cases on Monday.

The last time the province logged fewer than 304 new cases in a single day was on Aug. 5, when officials reported 213 new cases.

Ontario’s rolling seven-day average now stands at 406, down from 500 at this point last week. The seven-day average has been on a downward trend recently.

With 31,569 tests processed in the past 24 hours, the Ministry of Health says the positivity rate in the province fell to about 1.3 per cent.

The last time the province’s positivity rate dropped this low was on Aug. 5 when it stood at 1.2 per cent.

Of the new infections reported Wednesday, 220 cases involved people who are either unvaccinated, partially vaccinated or their vaccination status is unknown. The remaining 84 infections involved people who are fully vaccinated.

The province recorded four new deaths on Wednesday, bringing the total death tally in the province to 9,823.

The province stated at least 258 people are in hospital due to COVID-19, including 31 people who are fully vaccinated and 227 people who are either not fully vaccinated or have an unknown vaccination status.

At least 159 patients are in intensive care in Ontario hospitals and 113 are breathing with the assistance of a ventilator.

The province deemed 537 more cases of the disease to be resolved as of Wednesday, bringing Ontario’s number of recovered patients up to 582,609.

Today’s report brings the total number of lab-confirmed cases in Ontario to 595,867, 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 46 new cases in Toronto, 22 new cases in York Region, 15 new cases in Durham Region and 13 new cases in Peel Region.

Officials also reported 24 new cases in Sudbury area, 21 new cases in Windsor-Essex, 20 new cases in Hamilton, 19 new cases in Ottawa, 13 new cases in Southwestern Public Health and 11 new cases in Middlesex-London. All other regions reported fewer than 10 new cases of the disease.

According to the province’s epidemiology report, of the 304 new infections reported on Wednesday, 59 cases were identified in children under the age of 12.

The province also recorded 24 cases in youth between the ages of 12 and 19 and another 109 cases in people between the ages of 20 and 39.

As well, officials found 84 cases in people between the ages of 40 and 59, 25 cases in people between the ages of 60 and 79 and three cases in people over the age of 80.

On Wednesday, officials reported 107 new cases in Ontario schools, including 85 cases involving students and 22 cases involving staff.

The province reported that 592 out 4,844 schools have at least one case of COVID-19. Currently, one school is closed due to an outbreak.

Officials also reported an additional 46 cases of the Delta variant in lab-confirmed COVID-19 tests. This brings the total number of cases to 20,022

MORE THAN 10.8M PEOPLE FULLY VACCINATED IN ONTARIO

The province reports that 10,868,680 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 25,284 doses of the vaccine were administered to Ontario residents.

Just over 22.2 million vaccine doses have been administered in the province since the rollout began last year.