Ontario reports 848 new COVID-19 cases over the last two days

TORONTO — Health officials in Ontario are reporting 848 more cases of COVID-19 over the last two days and two additional deaths linked to the disease.

Tuesday’s report brings the province’s seven-day average for the number of cases logged to 524—down from 576 a week ago.

Of the cases reported today, 458 were logged on Monday and 390 were logged on Tuesday. The last time Ontario reported fewer than 400 new COVID-19 infections was on Aug. 17, when 348 cases were reported.

Most of the infections reported Tuesday involve individuals who are not fully vaccinated or have an unknown vaccination status, according to Health Minister Christine Elliott.

The province did not report COVID-19 case numbers on Monday due to the Thanksgiving holiday.

Right now, there are 155 people in hospital with COVID-19. Of those patients, 149 are being treated in the ICU. The province did not disclose the vaccination status of those hospitilized.

Since the start of the pandemic, Ontario has recorded 592,714 infections of the novel coronavirus, including 578,553 recoveries and 9,792 deaths, two of which were reported in the last 48 hours but occurred in September.

With nearly 40,000 swabs processed since Sunday, the province’s positivity rates sits at 1.9 per cent.

Where are the new COVID-19 cases?

Most of the cases reported by the province over the last two days were found in Toronto (158), Peel Region (133), and York Region (101).

Other areas that reported high case numbers in the last 48-hour period include Ottawa (48), Hamilton (47), and Windsor-Essex (45).

Additionally, 117 cases of COVID-19 were reported in schools across the province on Tuesday, including 107 infections found in students and 10 in staff members.

Of the 4,844 schools in Ontario, 774 (15.98 per cent) have a reported case of the disease. Nine schools are closed as a result.

Labs confirmed 127 new cases of the COVID-19 Delta variant B.1.617.2 since Sunday pushing the total case count to 19,418. Seventy-six of those infections were logged on Tuesday and 51 were logged on Monday following genomic sequencing.

Update on COVID-19 vaccinations

In total, 22,089,455 doses of COVID-19 vaccine have been administered throughout the province’s vaccination campaign.

As it stands, 87.1 per cent of eligible Ontarians have one dose and nearly 82.4 per cent have two doses and are considered to be fully vaccinated.