Ontario reports another 177 new cases of COVID-19, six additional deaths

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TORONTO — Ontario health officials are reporting 177 more cases of COVID-19 as well as six deaths linked to the disease.

Sunday’s report marks an increase of one case from the 176 recorded on Saturday.

This marks the tenth consecutive day in which COVID-19 case numbers in Ontario have remained below 200.

Since the pandemic began, the province has logged 548,217 lab-confirmed cases of the novel coronavirus.

That number includes 537,545 infections that are considered to be resolved by the Ministry of Health and 9,294 deaths, six of which were reported in the last 24 hours.

With only 14,805 COVID-19 tests processed Saturday, the province says that its positivity rate stands at one per cent.

The seven-day average for the number of COVID-19 cases reported across the province stands at 152. This time last week, that number was 180.

Right now, there are 105 people in hospital with COVID-19 and 150 patients being treated in intensive care, according to the Ministry of Health. Of those 150 patients, 99 are breathing with the assistance of a ventilator.

The hospitalization data presented by the province has been skewed over the past several weeks, which may be explained by a delay in patient reporting.

Where are the new COVID-19 cases?

The province reported the highest number of new COVID-19 cases in Grey Bruce (33), Waterloo (32), and Toronto (22).

Other public health units that reported case numbers in the double digits Sunday include Hamilton (16), Peel Region (12), and Porcupine (10).

Ontario entered Step 3 of its reopening plan on Friday, which allows for indoor dining and concerts, as well as the use of gyms and movie theatres.

The province will remain in this step for at least 21 days before the vast majority of public health restrictions are lifted.

Update on COVID-19 variants of concern

Ontario has been tracking COVID-19 variants of concern since February and reported an additional 47 cases Sunday.

Of those cases, 36 were of the Delta variant B.1.617.2, which brings the strain’s case total to 3,318.

There were six other cases of the Alpha variant B.1.1.7 reported in the previous day, pushing the case total to 144,798.

Labs recorded four cases of the Gamma variant P.1. There are 4,955 confirmed cases of that strain in the province.

One case of the Beta variant B.1.351 was also found. There are 1,466 cases of that mutation.

More than 18 million doses administered

Since the province’s vaccination campaign began in December, more than 18 million needles have gone into arms across Ontario, the government said Sunday.

That number includes 7,845,691 residents who have received both a first and second dose and are considered to be fully vaccinated.

Of the total number of shots administered, 134,654 jabs were performed on Saturday alone.

In a tweet published Sunday afternoon, Health Minister Christine Elliott confirmed that more than 80 per cent of adults in Ontario have received at least one dose of a COVID-19 vaccine.