Ontario reports 704 new COVID-19 infections, 7 more deaths

TORONTO — Ontario health officials are reporting just over 700 new COVID-19 cases on Saturday.

The province confirmed 704 new cases of the novel coronavirus, as well as seven more deaths due to the disease.

Ontario’s rolling seven-day average now stands at 607, down from 629 at this point last week.

With 29,510 tests processed in the past 24 hours, the Ministry of Health says the positivity rate in the province stands at 1.8 per cent.

Of the new infections reported Saturday, 506 cases involved people who are either unvaccinated, partially vaccinated or their vaccination status is unknown. The remaining 198 infections involved people who are fully vaccinated.

The province recorded seven new deaths on Saturday, bringing the total death tally in the province to 9,750.

The ministry says there are 274 people in Ontario hospitals receiving treatment for the virus and 162 patients are in intensive care units.

Of those in ICUs, Health Minister Christine Elliott says 155 are not fully vaccinated or have an unknown vaccination status and seven are fully vaccinated.

VARIANT OF CONCERN UPDATE

The Ministry of Health is reporting 7 new cases of the Delta variant, B.1.617.2, on Saturday, bringing the total number of cases in the province to 18,629.

Officials also reported two new cases of the Alpha variant, B.1.1.7., bringing the total number of Alpha cases to 146,473.

WHERE ARE THE NEW CASES?

Locally, there are 150 new cases in Toronto, 46 in York Region, 67 in Peel Region, 44 in Hamilton, 14 in Durham Region and 31 in the Region of Waterloo.

VACCINATION UPDATE

The province said it administered 37,333 doses of COVID-19 vaccines Friday.

Throughout Ontario’s nine-month vaccination campaign, over 21.8 million needles have gone into arms.

As of today, 10,583,567 people have received both doses and are considered to be fully vaccinated.

More to come...