Ontario records nearly 2,000 new COVID-19 cases, 36 more deaths

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TORONTO — Ontario has recorded nearly 2,000 new COVID-19 cases and confirmed 36 more deaths.

On Monday, provincial health officials logged 1,969 infections of the novel coronavirus, marking a slight increase from the 1,848 cases logged on Sunday.

Before that, 2,063 cases were recorded on Saturday and 1,837 on Friday.

The province’s seven-day average for number of cases recorded is now 1,888, down from 2,370 one week ago.

There were 30,359 COVID-19 tests completed in the province in the last-recorded 24-hour period.

The province’s test positivity rate now stands at about 5.2 per cent, according to the Ministry of Health.

Of the new cases logged Monday, 886 are in Toronto, 330 are in Peel Region and 128 are in York Region.

In recent days, Toronto Public Health has been dealing with a “data catch-up” as it migrates to the provincial tracking system. Officials did not state how many additional cases were included in Monday’s count as a result.

Other areas that recorded more than 50 cases of the disease on Monday include Durham Region (90), Windsor-Essex (72), Halton Region (55), and Niagara Region (61).

Monday’s count brings the total number of lab-confirmed cases in Ontario to 270,180, including deaths and recoveries.

With the 36 new deaths confirmed by health officials on Monday, the province’s death toll is now 6,224. Of the new deaths, 19 were residents of long-term care homes.

According to the province, there are at least 1,158 patients infected with the novel coronavirus in Ontario hospitals as of Monday. Of those patients, 354 are in the intensive care unit (ICU) and 260 of those 354 patients are breathing with the assistance of a ventilator.

At this time last week, there were 1,398 hospitalized COVID-19 patients, 397 of which were in the ICU and 283 were on a ventilator.

On Monday, health officials deemed 2,132 more cases of the disease to be resolved, bringing Ontario’s number of recovered patients up to 244,939

There are currently 19,017 active cases of COVID-19 in Ontario, down from 23,620 one week ago.

Officials also said there have been 69 cases of the U.K. variant, also known as B.1.1.7, found in Ontario as of Monday.

Thus far, 341,900 doses of the COVID-19 vaccine have been administered in Ontario, including 2,256 doses administered in the previous day. The vaccine requires two doses. In Ontario, 70,293 total vaccinations have been completed as of Sunday.