Ontario reports more than 3,600 new COVID-19 cases as positivity rate crosses 10 per cent

Cottage country visitors urged to be respectful Mayor of Norfolk County, Kristal Chopp discusses concerns with out-of-town residents visiting cottage country during the COVID-19 pandemic.

TORONTO — More than 3,600 new COVID-19 infections were found across Ontario as health officials reported the highest positivity rate since last April.

The 3,670 new cases logged Tuesday are down from the 4,401 reported a day earlier.

With 42,167 tests processed in the last 24 hours, the province's COVID-19 positivity rate stands at 10.3 per cent, according to the Ministry of Health.

The last time Ontario's positivity rate was that high was back in early April 2020 when it hit 17 per cent. However, the province's testing capacity at that time was far lower.

Ontario's seven-day average for number of cases reported is 3,868, which is more than 1,000 cases higher than it was last week.

Since the pandemic began, 394,679 lab-confirmed infections have been recorded throughout the province. Of those cases, 351,257 people have recovered and 7,582 have died. Fifteen of those deaths were logged in the previous day.

Right now, there are 35,840 active cases of the novel coronavirus in Ontario.

Tuesday's report comes as intensive care admissions related to COVID-19 remain at an all-time high.

Of the 1,822 patients in hospital with the disease, 626 are being treated in the ICU and 422 are breathing with the assistance of a ventilator.

Where are the new COVID-19 cases?

Most of the cases reported Tuesday were found in Toronto (1,016), Peel Region (613), and York Region (519).

Other areas that logged case counts in the triple digits include Ottawa (214), Durham Region (196), Hamilton (161), Halton Region (157), Niagara Region (103), Waterloo (121), and Simcoe-Muskoka (102).

The entire province is currently under a month-long stay-at-home order to prevent the transmission of COVID-19.

Nearly 4,000 new cases of U.K. variant found

In the last 24 hours, health officials say they confirmed 3,947 more cases of the COVID-19 variant B.1.1.7.

The case total for the strain, which was first discovered in U.K., sits at 20,487.

As well, three more COVID-19 P.1 (Brazilian variant) cases were documented bring the total to 143.

The number of B.1.351 (South African variant) infections is unchanged at 81.

The province began screening for COVID-19 mutations in February and has since flagged 25,381 swabs.

Update on vaccinations

At least 335,262 people have received both their first and second shots of a COVID-19 vaccine and are considered to be fully vaccinated, the province said.

Since the government began rolling out vaccines in December, 3,310,157 needles have gone into arms. More than 95,000 shots were administered in the previous day.