Ontario reports another 848 new COVID-19 cases, 11 additional deaths

Ontario won't mandate vaccines for health workers The Ford government will not enforce a vaccine policy for workers in health care. CTV's Megan Shaw reports.

TORONTO — Health officials in Ontario confirmed 848 new cases of COVID-19 Friday as well as 11 deaths related to the disease.

The new infections mark an increase over Thursday’s report when 798 were recorded.

Ontario’s seven-day average for the number of cases reported is now 728. This time last week, that number was 731.

Of the cases reported Friday, Health Minister Christine Elliott said 659 involve individuals who are not fully vaccinated or have an unknown vaccination status and 189 are in fully vaccinated individuals.

Right now, there are 361 people in hospital with COVID-19 and 331 of them are not fully vaccinated or have an unknown vaccination status. At least 30 patients in hospital are fully vaccinated.

Moreover, there are 177 people in the ICU with the disease and 163 are not fully vaccinated or have an unknown vaccination status while 14 are fully vaccinated.

With 11 more deaths linked to COVID-19 reported in the last 24 hours, Ontario’s death toll stands at 9,590. However, the province said that six of those deaths actually occurred more than one month ago.

So far, the province has seen 572,978 lab-confirmed cases of the disease, including deaths and 557,265 recoveries.

Labs across Ontario processed 28,247 swabs since yesterday, generating a positivity rate of 3.1 per cent, according to the Ministry of Health.

Where are the new COVID-19 cases?

Most of the cases reported by the province Friday were found in Toronto (166), Peel Region (117), York Region (77), and Windsor-Essex (74).

Other areas that reported high case counts in the double digits include Hamilton (53), Ottawa (52), and Durham Region (48).

748 more cases of Delta variant confirmed

In the last 24 hours, labs confirmed 748 cases of the COVID-19 Delta variant B.1.617.2. This brings the total number of cases to 14,051.

Four other cases of the Alpha variant B.1.1.7 were also found. There are 146,444 cases of the variant in Ontario.

No new cases of the Beta variant B.1.351 or Gamma variant P.1 were logged in the previous day.

Update on COVID-19 vaccinations

Throughout Ontario’s 10-month vaccination campaign, 21,098,125 needles have gone into arms across the province.

At least 10,128,949 residents or 77.7 per cent of the eligible population have received two doses of a COVID-19 vaccine and are considered to be fully vaccinated. As well, 84.1 per cent of Ontarians have received one dose.

On Thursday, 35,844 doses were administered, the province said.