Ontario records highest number of new COVID-19 cases in months with 964 infections logged

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TORONTO — Health officials in Ontario are reporting 964 new cases of COVID-19, marking the highest number of infections reported in a single day since May 30 when 1,033 cases were identified.

Sunday’s report brings the seven-day average for the number of COVID-19 cases reported in the province to 760. This time last week, that number was 645.

Of the cases logged today, 498 were found unvaccinated individuals, 396 were in those fully vaccinated, and 21 cases were recorded in partially vaccinated individuals. The vaccination status of the remaining 49 cases is unknown.

Health Minister Christine Elliott said that there are 122 people hospitalized with COVID-19 and 135 people are in ICU with the disease. However, vaccination information for those hospitalized was not provided.

Ontario logged 854 cases of the novel coronavirus on Saturday and 927 cases on Friday, which was the highest single-day total reported since early September.

Labs across Ontario processed 29,692 COVID-19 tests in the last 24 hours, pushing the positivity rate to 3.2 per cent.

Since the beginning of the pandemic, Ontario has logged 617,015 lab-confirmed cases of COVID-19, including 600,537 recoveries and 9,994 deaths, one of which was reported since yesterday.

WHERE ARE THE NEW CASES OF COVID-19?

Provincial data shows that most of the cases reported Sunday were found in Toronto (129), Windsor-Essex (86), and Simcoe Muskoka (81).

Other areas with relatively high case numbers reported include York Region (60), Peel Region (58), Ottawa (58), Durham Region (42), Halton Region (41), Kingston (33), and Sudbury (33).

UPDATE ON COVID-19 VACCINATIONS

According to the Ministry of Health, nearly 89.6 per cent of Ontarians over the age of 12 have one dose of a COVID-19 vaccine and 86.3 per cent have two doses and are considered to be fully vaccinated.

Since the province began administering vaccines in December of last year, 22,928,466 needles have gone into arms across the province.

Although children between the ages of 5 and 11 are now eligible to get a COVID-19 vaccine, the Ministry of Health is not including that group in their total percentage of the vaccinated population.

“Public reporting of the vaccination data that covers the population aged five and older will be available in the near future,” Ministry of Health Spokesperson Alexandra Hilkene said in an email to CTV News Toronto.