Ontario reports just over 3,500 new COVID-19 cases, positivity rate highest in more than one year

Ontario's health-care system nears breaking point Ontario Health says when there are 900 COVID-19 patients in ICU, emergency rooms will have to invoke critical care triage protocol.

TORONTO — Ontario is reporting just over 3,500 new COVID-19 cases as the province’s positivity rate reaches nearly 11 per cent for the first time in more than one year.

The 3,510 new infections logged Monday represent a significant drop from the 3,947 cases reported on Sunday and the 4,094 on Saturday.

As a result, the seven-day average of daily COVID-19 cases in Ontario continues to decrease, with about 3,917 infections.

One week ago that number stood at 4,347.

At the same time, with just over 33,800 COVID-19 tests processed in the previous 24 hours, the Ministry of Health said the province’s positivity rate is now 10.9 per cent.

This is the highest that number has been since April of last year, when testing capacity was far lower and the positivity rate hit a staggering 17 per cent.

Hospitalizations related to the disease continue to rise with 2,271 people being treated for the disease in Ontario. Of those patients, 877 are in intensive care units and 605 are breathing with the assistance of a ventilator.

The total number of lab-confirmed cases of COVID-19 in Ontario now stands at 448,861, including 7,935 deaths and 400,340 recoveries.

Twenty-four more deaths related to COVID-19 were recorded Monday.

On Sunday, Brampton Mayor Patrick Brown confirmed that a 13-year-old girl from Brampton, Ont. had died after contracting COVID-19.

Where are the new COVID-19 cases?

The majority of COVID-19 cases in Ontario continue to be reported in the Greater Toronto Area.

According to the province’s epidemiology report, there were 1,015 infections in Toronto, 909 in Peel Region and 391 in York Region.

Other municipalities with infection numbers in the triple digits include Durham (244), Ottawa (206) and Halton (143).

Ontario is currently under a provincewide lockdown and stay-at-home order, which makes it illegal to leave a place of residence for non-essential reasons.

Variants continue to rise in Ontario

The province has also confirmed an additional 2,030 cases of the B.1.1.7. variant in lab-confirmed COVID-19 tests on Monday. This brings the total number of B.1.1.7. in the province thus far to 54,436.

Officials also recorded an additional four cases of the P.1. strain. Two previous cases of the B.1351 variant have been removed from today’s epidemiology report.

The epidemiology report does not include any mention of the B.1.617 variant, originally found in India, despite the fact that Public Health Ontario said on Friday that at least 36 cases have been confirmed in the province.

It is not clear if more variant cases have been identified since then.

Less than 70,000 vaccine doses administered in last 24-hour period

In the last recorded 24-hour period, Ontario has administered 69,308 doses of COVID-19 vaccine.

On Sunday, 99,535 doses were administered.

The province has repeatedly said it has the capacity to administer 150,000 doses a day.

In total, more than 4.6 million people have received at least one shot while 361,166 people have received both doses and are considered vaccinated.