Ontario reports another 610 cases of COVID-19, two additional deaths

Public education needed for face masks Epidemiologist Dr. Colin Furness says face mask mandates without proper public messaging social violence and confusion could ensue.

TORONTO — Ontario is reporting 610 additional cases of COVID-19 Monday and two more deaths related to the disease.

Those cases include 458 which were found in individuals who are not fully vaccinated or have an unknown vaccination status. At least 152 cases were reported in fully vaccinated individuals.

Right now, there are 233 people hospitalized with COVID-19 and 177 people are in intensive care. The province does not report the vaccination status of those with COVID-19 in hospital on Mondays.

Health officials reported 715 new infections on Sunday and 821 on Saturday.

The seven-day average for the number of cases reported stands at 710. Last week, that number was 717.

With 23,864 tests processed in the last 24 hours, the Ministry of Health says Ontario’s COVID-19 positivity rate is 2.7 per cent.

Two additional deaths related to the disease were also reported since Sunday, pushing Ontario’s COVID-19 death toll to 9,655.

Since the beginning of the pandemic, the province has logged 580,194 lab-confirmed cases of COVID-19. That number includes deaths and 564,163 recoveries.

Where are the new COVID-19 cases?

Most of the cases reported by the province on Monday were found in Toronto (126), Peel Region (100), and York Region (71).

Cases were also reported in Ottawa (54), Waterloo (31), Windsor-Essex (29), Hamilton (23), and Niagara Region (22).

The province says 138 infections were also reported in schools across the province, including 112 cases found in students and 21 in staff members. Five other cases were not identified.

Currently, of the 4,844 schools in Ontario, 444 or 9.17 per cent have a reported case of COVID-19 and at least one school is closed as a result.

Update on variants of concern

In the last 24 hours, labs confirmed 23 more cases of the COVID-19 Delta variant B.1.617.2.

There are 16,755 cases of the strain in Ontario.

One other case of the Alpha variant B.1.1.7 was also found, bringing the case total to 146,453.

No new cases of the Beta variant B.1.351 or Gamma variant P.1 were reported by the province Monday.

COVID-19 vaccinations in Ontario

As of Monday, 10,309,713 people have received both their first and second doses of a COVID-19 vaccine and are considered to be fully vaccinated. Of the province’s eligible population, 79.1 per cent have received both doses.

In total, 21,404,362 needles have gone into arms throughout the province’s 10-month vaccination campaign.

Some 16,000 needles went into arms on Sunday alone.

Close to 85.1 per cent of Ontarians over the age of 12 have received at least one dose.