Ontario reports another 135 new cases of COVID-19, four additional deaths

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TORONTO — Health officials in Ontario are reporting 135 new cases of COVID-19 as well as four additional deaths linked to the disease.

Wednesday’s report brings the total number of lab-confirmed COVID-19 cases in the province to 548,609, including 537,975 recoveries and 9,300 deaths.

Labs processed 20,750 tests in the last 24 hours, yielding a positivity rate of 0.8 per cent, according to the Ministry of Health.

This marks the 13th day in a row in which case numbers in Ontario have remained below 200.

The rolling seven-day average for the number of cases reported across the province stands at 149. A week ago, that number was 164.

Right now, the province says there are 139 patients in hospital with COVID-19.

Where are the new COVID-19 cases?

Most of the cases reported by the province Wednesday were found in Toronto (26), Peel Region (16), and Durham Region (13).

Case counts in the double digits were also found in Waterloo (12) and Middlesex-London (10).

Ontario is currently in Step 3 of its reopening plan, which allows for the most lenient public health restrictions the province has seen in months.

Premier Doug Ford’s government has said that the final step of its reopening plan, which will see the lifting of virtually all remaining public health restrictions, can’t begin until at least 80 per cent of those 12 and older have been partially vaccinated and 75 per cent have been fully vaccinated.

However, during a briefing on Tuesday, Ontario’s top doctor said that the province needs to get 90 per cent of eligible residents fully vaccinated to account for the risk of the Delta variant.

“Certainly I'd love Ontario to have one of the highest vaccination rates in the world. The modelling, though, tells us that once we're at around 90 per cent of the eligible population immunized that the risk of Delta will be less for us,” Chief Medical Officer of Health Dr. Kieran Moore said.

517 more cases of COVID-19 variants of concern confirmed

Labs in Ontario confirmed 517 more cases of COVID-19 variants of concern Tuesday.

At least 353 of those cases are of the Delta variant B.1.617.2, which brings the case total to 3,693.

Ninety-nine are of the Alpha variant B.1.1.7. There are 144,922 confirmed cases of that strain in the province.

Another 58 cases were of the Gamma variant P.1, which pushes the case total to 5,027.

Seven cases of the Beta variant B.1.351 were also confirmed. There are 1,474 cases of that mutation in Ontario.

Update on COVID-19 vaccines

Clinics administered 140,491 doses of COVID-19 vaccine Tuesday, raising the total number of doses administered throughout the province’s vaccination campaign to 18,429,003.

That number includes 8,165,247 people who have received both doses and are considered to be fully vaccinated.

With files from CP24's Chris Fox.