Ontario reports just over 1,000 new COVID-19 cases, 18 additional deaths

Experts want regional approach in school reopening Ontario’s COVID-19 Science Advisory Table says it believes schools can reopen on a regional basis without risking virus progress.

TORONTO — Ontario is reporting 1,033 new cases of COVID-19, with 18 additional deaths.

The 1,033 cases logged Sunday represent a small decrease over the 1,057 added a day earlier.

With 26,565 tests processed across the province in the past 24 hours, the Ministry of Health says the COVID-19 positivity rate is 4.2 per cent.

Since the beginning of the pandemic, Ontario has recorded 530,543 lab-confirmed cases of the disease. That number includes 508,428 recoveries and 8,744 deaths.

Eighteen of those deaths were reported in the previous day.

The seven-day average for number of cases reported is 1,154. A week ago, the average was 1,878.

Right now, there are 13,371 active cases of the novel coronavirus in Ontario.

Meanwhile, at least 749 COVID-19 patients remain in hospital, 614 of which are being treated in intensive care.

Where are the new COVID-19 cases?

Most of the cases reported by the province Sunday were found in Toronto (237), Peel Region (214), and York Region (80).

Ontario is currently under a stay-at-home order which was recently extended and is set to expire on June 2.

Earlier this month, Premier Doug Ford unveiled a three-step reopening plan to ease pandemic restrictions which is set to begin on June 14, starting with outdoor activities

Update on COVID-19 variants of concern

Another 863 cases of the COVID-19 variant known as B.1.1.7 were confirmed in Ontario since Saturday.

The case total for the mutation, which was first discovered in the U.K., stands at 125,035.

Twenty cases of P.1 (Brazilian variant) and two cases of B.1.351 (South African variant) were also recorded, pushing their case totals to 2,814 and 947, respectively.

The province does not regularly report the number of B.1.617 (Indian variant) infections.

COVID-19 vaccinations in Ontario

As of today, 8.984,278 doses of a COVID-19 vaccine have been administered across Ontario so far, according to the Ministry of Health.

At least 144,000 of those needles went into arms on Wednesday alone.

The Ministry of Health says that 687,894 people have received both a first and second dose and are considered to be fully vaccinated against the disease.