Ontario reports just over 1,000 new COVID-19 cases, hospitalizations under 1,000

Ontario speeds up second vaccine doses Ontario announced on Friday it would be speeding up second COVID-19 vaccine doses for everyone in the province.

TORONTO — Ontario is reporting 1,057 new cases of COVID-19 on Saturday, with 15 additional deaths.

Since the beginning of the pandemic, Ontario has recorded 529,510 lab-confirmed cases of the disease. That number includes 506,361 recoveries and 8,726 deaths.

At least 15 of those deaths were reported in the previous day.

With 33,559 tests processed across the province in the past 24 hours, the Ministry of Health says the COVID-19 positivity rate is 3.6 per cent.

The seven-day average for number of cases reported is 1,249. A week ago, the average was 1,951.

Right now, there are 14,423 active cases of COVID-19 in Ontario.

Meanwhile, 934 COVID-19 patients remain in hospital, 626 of which are being treated in intensive care.

Where are the new COVID-19 cases?

Most of the cases reported by the province Saturday were found in Toronto (228), Peel Region (178), York Region (82) and Hamilton (71).

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

On Thursday afternoon, 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 986 cases of the COVID-19 variant known as B.1.1.7 were confirmed in Ontario since Friday.

The case total for the mutation, which was first discovered in the U.K., stands at 124,172.

One hundred and seventy-eight cases of P.1 (Brazilian variant) and 31 cases of B.1.351 (South African variant) were also recorded, pushing their case totals to 2,794 and 945, respectively.

COVID-19 vaccinations in Ontario

Almost nine million doses of a COVID-19 vaccine have been administered across Ontario so far.

At least 148,972 of those needles went into arms on Wednesday alone.

The Ministry of Health says that nearly 659,139 people have received both a first and second dose and are considered to be fully vaccinated against the disease.