Ontario reports 438 new cases of COVID-19, five new deaths

Elliott on not mandating vaccines in hospitals Health Minister Christine Elliott explains why the province has decided against mandating the COVID-19 vaccine for health care workers.

TORONTO — Ontario health officials are reporting 438 new cases of COVID-19 on Thursday.

Additionally, officials recorded five new deaths. The total number of COVID-19-related deaths in the province is now 9,891.

Today’s case count comes after officials logged 378 new cases on Wednesday, 331 new cases on Tuesday and 422 new cases on Monday.

Ontario’s rolling seven-day average now stands at 383, up from 366 at this point last week.

With 32,129 tests processed in the past 24 hours, the Ministry of Health says the positivity rate in the province stands at about 1.7 per cent.

Of the new infections reported Thursday, 279 cases involved people who are either unvaccinated, partially vaccinated or their vaccination status is unknown. The remaining 159 infections involved people who are fully vaccinated.

The province stated at least 146 people are in hospital due to COVID-19, including 57 people who are fully vaccinated and 89 people who are either not fully vaccinated or have an unknown vaccination status.

Of those hospitalized, the province says 82 patients are in intensive care due to COVID-19 — 67 of those patients are unvaccinated or partially vaccinated, while 15 are fully vaccinated.

The province deemed 337 more cases of the disease to be resolved as of Thursday, bringing Ontario’s number of recovered patients up to 588,444.

Today’s report brings the total number of lab-confirmed cases in Ontario to 601,524, including deaths and recoveries.

WHERE ARE THE NEW COVID-19 CASES IN ONTARIO

In the Greater Toronto Area, officials reported 72 new cases in Toronto, 26 new cases in Peel Region, 37 new cases in York Region and four new cases in Durham Region.

Outside of the GTA, Niagara region reported 40 new cases and Simcoe-Muskoka reported 34 new cases.

All other regions reported fewer than 30 new cases of the virus.

According to the province’s epidemiology report, of the 438 new infections reported on Thursday, 84 cases were identified in children under the age of 12.

The province also recorded 30 cases in youth between the ages of 12 and 19 and another 134 cases in people between the ages of 20 and 39.

On Thursday, 86 COVID-19 infections were found in schools across Ontario. Seventy-two of those cases were recorded in students and 14 were in staff members.

There are 501 schools with at least one confirmed case and four facilities are currently closed as a result.

Officials also reported an additional 91 cases of the Delta variant in lab-confirmed COVID-19 tests. This brings the total number of cases to 21,323.

OVER 11M PEOPLE FULLY VACCINATED IN ONTARIO

The province reports that 11,053,036 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 16,588 doses of the vaccine were administered to Ontario residents.

Just over 22.5 million vaccine doses have been administered in the province since the rollout began last year.