Ontario reports 959 new COVID-19 cases, seven more deaths

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TORONTO — Ontario health officials are reporting 959 new cases of COVID-19 and seven more deaths due to the disease.

This past week, officials reported 788 new cases on Monday, 687 new cases on Tuesday, and 780 new cases on Wednesday.

The last time the province reported more than 900 new infections in a single day was on Sunday.

Ontario’s rolling seven-day average now stands at 851, up from 692 at this point last week.

With 38,480 tests processed in the past 24 hours, the Ministry of Health says the positivity rate in the province stands at about 2.9 per cent.

Of the new infections reported Thursday, 530 cases involved people who are either unvaccinated, partially vaccinated or their vaccination status is unknown. The remaining 429 infections involved people who are fully vaccinated.

The province recorded seven more deaths on Thursday, bringing the total death tally in the province to 10,012.

There are currently at least 291 people being treated for COVID-19 in hospital. Health Minister Christine Elliott says that of those patients, 241 are not fully vaccinated or have an unknown vaccination status and 50 are fully vaccinated.

At least 155 patients are in intensive care in Ontario hospitals and 85 are breathing with the assistance of a ventilator.

The province deemed 770 more cases of the disease to be resolved as of Thursday, bringing Ontario’s number of recovered patients up to 603,285.

Today’s report brings the total number of lab-confirmed cases in Ontario to 620,229, including deaths and recoveries.

WHERE ARE THE NEW COVID-19 CASES IN ONTARIO?

In the Greater Toronto Area, officials reported 118 new cases in Toronto, 75 new cases in Peel Region, 53 new cases in York Region, 42 new cases in Halton Region and 21 new cases in Durham Region.

Officials reported 91 new cases in Windsor-Essex, 59 new cases in Ottawa, 36 new cases in the Kingston area, 35 new cases in Algoma District and 32 new cases each in Niagara Region and the Sudbury area. All other regions reported fewer than 30 new cases.

According to the province’s epidemiology report, of the 959 new infections reported on Thursday, 222 cases were identified in children under the age of 12.

The province also recorded 83 cases in youth between the ages of 12 and 19 and another 285 cases in people between the ages of 20 and 39.

As well, officials found 237 cases in people between the ages of 40 and 59, 119 cases in people between the ages of 60 and 79 and 11 cases in people over the age of 80.

On Thursday, officials reported 164 new cases in Ontario schools, including 148 cases involving students and 15 cases involving staff. Officials did not release information about the remaining one case.

The province reported that 761 out of 4,844 schools have at least one case of COVID-19. Currently, 10 schools are closed due to outbreaks.

As of Thursday, five cases of the new Omicron variant have been identified in Ontario. The latest case was reported in Durham Region.