Ontario reports 417 new COVID-19 cases, lowest positivity rate since August

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TORONTO — Ontario health officials are reporting 417 new cases of COVID-19 in the province on Thursday, as well as three more deaths due to the disease.

Today’s case count comes just a day after officials logged 306 new infections of the novel coronavirus on Wednesday, which marked the lowest daily case count since the beginning of August.

Ontario’s rolling seven-day average now stands at 476, down from 565 at this point last week. The seven-day average has been on a downward trend recently.

With 35,421 tests processed in the past 24 hours, the Ministry of Health says the positivity rate in the province stands at 1.5 per cent.

The last time the province’s positivity rate dropped this low was on Aug. 6 when it stood at 1.4 per cent.

Of the new infections reported Thursday, 271 cases involved people who are either unvaccinated, partially vaccinated or their vaccination status is unknown. The remaining 146 infections involved people who are fully vaccinated.

The province recorded three new deaths on Thursday, bringing the total death tally in the province to 9,807.

The province stated at least 254 people are in hospital due to COVID-19, including 31 people who are fully vaccinated and 223 people who are either not fully vaccinated or have an unknown vaccination status.

At least 158 patients are in intensive care in Ontario hospitals and 101 are breathing with the assistance of a ventilator.

The province deemed 528 more cases of the disease to be resolved as of Thursday, bringing Ontario’s number of recovered patients up to 579,608.

Today’s report brings the total number of lab-confirmed cases in Ontario to 593,437, 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 69 new cases in Toronto, 43 new cases in Peel Region, 18 new cases in York Region and 14 new cases in Durham Region.

Officials also reported 55 new cases in Eastern Ontario Health Unit region, 30 new cases in Hamilton, 29 new cases in Ottawa and 23 new cases in Windsor-Essex. All other regions reported fewer than 20 new cases of the disease.

According to the province’s epidemiology report, of the 417 new infections reported on Thursday, 61 cases were identified in children under the age of 12.

The province also recorded 27 cases in youth between the ages of 12 and 19 and another 133 cases in people between the ages of 20 and 39.

As well, officials found 11 cases in people between the ages of 40 and 59, 66 cases in people between the ages of 60 and 79 and 18 cases in people over the age of 80.

On Thursday, officials reported 126 new cases in Ontario schools, including 117 cases involving students and five cases involving staff. The province said the remaining four cases were not identified.

The province reported that 696 out 4,844 schools have at least one case of COVID-19. Currently, four schools are closed due to outbreaks.

Officials also reported an additional 70 cases of the Delta variant in lab-confirmed COVID-19 tests. This brings the total number of cases to 19,518.

Ontario Premier Doug Ford will speak on Friday about the province’s post-Step three strategy that will lift capacity limits on businesses where vaccine certificates are required — a plan that will be formally announced next week.

MORE THAN 10.7M PEOPLE FULLY VACCINATED IN ONTARIO

The province reports that 10,775,345 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 28,756 doses of the vaccine were administered to Ontario residents.

Just over 22.1 million vaccine doses have been administered in the province since the rollout began last year.