Ontario reports more than 2,600 new COVID-19 cases, cites technical issue in Toronto

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TORONTO — Ontario reported more than 2,600 new cases of COVID-19 on Thursday, but health officials say that number includes infections from a previous day due to a technical issue.

The province logged 2,632 new cases of the novel coronavirus on Thursday, but officials said 102 of those cases were supposed to be reported on Tuesday. They were not added at that time due to a technical issue, which has now been resolved.

With more than 70,000 tests completed in the past 24 hours, the province’s positivity rate has dropped to 4.3 per cent, according to the Ontario Ministry of Health.

The province’s seven-day average for the number of infections recorded is now 2,751, down from 3,452 one week ago.

Health officials reported that 46 more people have died due to COVID-19. Thirty-three of the deaths reported were people living in long-term care homes.

In total, the province has recorded 5,614 deaths related to COVID-19.

Health officials reported that 1,533 people are currently in hospital due to the disease. Of those patients, more than 388 are in intensive care, and 293 are breathing with the assistance of a ventilator.

Officials have said that when more than 300 COVID-19 patients are in intensive care, medical care in hospitals not related to the disease becomes nearly impossible to handle.

The province also deemed 2,990 more cases of the disease to be resolved as of Thursday, bringing Ontario’s number of recovered patients up to 215,887.

Thursday’s case count brings the total number of lab-confirmed cases in Ontario to 247,564, including deaths and recoveries.

Where are the COVID-19 cases in Ontario?

Of the 2,632 cases reported on Thursday, health officials said that 897 were in Toronto, 412 were in Peel Region and 245 were in York Region.

Several other regions in Ontario reported COVID-19 cases numbers in the triple and double digits, including Ottawa (162) and Waterloo (118).

Ontario Premier Doug Ford issued a stay-at-home order for the province beginning on Jan. 14 and immediately declared a second state of emergency on Jan. 12.

The order will remain in effect for at least 28 days. Earlier this week, Ontario Chief Medical Officer of Health Dr. David Williams said the number of new COVID-19 cases reported daily should be “around or below 1,000” before the lockdown orders can be lifted.

There were 70,256 COVID-19 tests completed in the province in the last-recorded 24-hour period. There are 52,871 COVID-19 tests still under investigation.

In total, Ontario has processed more than 9.1 million tests since the pandemic began in January.

As of 10:30 a.m. on Thursday, 253,817 initial doses of the COVID-19 vaccine have been administered in Ontario, including 15,899 doses administered in the past 24 hours. The vaccine requires a booster shot and, as such, 40,225 complete vaccinations have been completed as of Thursday.

Due to a shortage of the Pfizer’s COVID-19 vaccine in Canada, the province announced Tuesday it is changing its vaccination strategy to ensure the most vulnerable are given their necessary second shot.