Ontario reports just under 160 new COVID-19 cases, 10 more deaths

TREND LINE: Nanos on health-care crisis Trend Line's Michael Stittle and Nik Nanos look at the health-care crisis and who the public holds responsible for the strain on the system.

TORONTO — Ontario health officials are reporting just under 160 new cases of COVID-19, which marks the eighth straight day of daily case numbers below the 200 mark.

The province confirmed 159 new cases of the novel coronavirus on Friday, which comes after 143 new infections on Thursday, 154 new infections on Wednesday and 146 new infections on Tuesday.

Ontario’s rolling seven-day average now stands at 151, down from 192 at this point last week.

With 28,126 tests processed in the past 24 hours, the Ministry of Health says the positivity rate in the province stands at 0.6 per cent.

The province recorded 10 new deaths related to the disease, bringing the total death tally in the province to 9,285.

There are at least 204 patients in intensive care in Ontario hospitals and 123 are breathing with the assistance of a ventilator.

The province deemed 189 more cases of the disease to be resolved as of Friday, bringing Ontario’s number of recovered patients up to 537,176.

Friday’s report brings the total number of lab-confirmed cases in Ontario to 547,864, including deaths and recoveries.

WHERE ARE THE COVID-19 CASES IN ONTARIO

In the Greater Toronto Area, officials reported 23 cases in Toronto, 12 new cases in Peel Region, eight new cases in Durham Region, seven new cases in Halton Region and no new cases in York Region.

Officials also reported 34 new cases in Grey Bruce Health Unit and 25 new cases in Waterloo. All other regions outside of the GTA reported fewer than 10 new cases of the disease.

The province entered Step 3 of its reopening plan on Friday, nearly five days ahead of schedule, allowing indoor dining to resume and gyms to open for the first time in months.

VARIANTS OF CONCERN IN ONTARIO UPDATE

The province detected several more cases of variants of concern on Friday. Officials are analyzing cases on an ongoing basis to detect mutations and variants of concerns.

The province confirmed an additional 19 new cases of B.1.1.7 on Friday. The total case count for the strain now stands at 144,781.

Officials identified no new cases of the B.1.351 variant and so the total case count in the province remained at 1,465.

In addition, the province also added one new case of the P.1 variant, which brings its total number of cases to 4,950.

As for the Delta variant, also known as the B.1.617 variant, officials reported 14 new cases of the strain, which brings the total number in the province to 3,150.

MORE THAN 7.5M PEOPLE FULLY VACCINATED IN ONTARIO

The province reports that 7,578,116 people in Ontario have received both doses of a COVID-19 vaccine and are now considered fully vaccinated against the disease.

In the last 24-hour period, officials said 168,616 doses of the vaccine were administered to Ontario residents.

Just over 17.8 million vaccine doses have been administered in the province since the rollout began last year.