Ontario reports more than 3,800 new COVID-19 cases for second straight day

Here's when you can book your COVID-19 vaccine The Ontario government will be allowing anyone aged 55 and over to get a COVID-19 vaccine through the provincial portal starting Friday.

TORONTO — Ontario is reporting more than 3,800 new COVID-19 cases for the second day straight but the province's seven-day rolling average continues to decline.

Health officials reported 3,887 new COVID-19 cases on Friday, which is nearly the same number as the 3,871 cases logged on Thursday.

With 53,074 tests completed in the previous day, the test positivity rate stands at about 7.4 per cent. Ontario’s test positivity rate has remained stable over the past three days.

Ontario's seven-day rolling average of new daily cases is 3,722, which is down from last week.

As of Friday, there are 2,201 people hospitalized with COVID-19 in Ontario. Of those patients, 883 are being treated in intensive care units and 632 are breathing with the assistance of a ventilator.

Ontario logged 21 additional COVID-19-related deaths in the previous 24-hour period, which bring the total number of fatalities to 8,050.

The province also deemed 4,242 more cases of the disease to be resolved as of Thursday, bringing Ontario's number of recovered patients up to 417,252.

Friday's report brings the total number of lab-confirmed cases in Ontario to 463,364 including deaths and recoveries.

New cases in Toronto spike

Most of the new cases reported on Friday are in hot spot regions. Health officials reported 1,331 new cases in Toronto on Friday, which is an increase from the 1,172 reported on Thursday.

There are 871 new cases in Peel Region, 267 in York Region, 208 in Durham Region, and 204 in Hamilton.

The other health regions reporting new case loads in the triple digits include Ottawa (196), Niagara (156), and Halton Region (123).

Meanwhile, Ontario confirmed an additional 3,016 cases of the B.1.1.7. COVID-19 variant on Friday, bringing the total number to 65,960.

Officials also recorded an additional 144 cases of the P.1. strain and 31 of the B.1.351 mutation.

Ontario does not currently report how many cases of the B.1.617 variant, originally found in India, are found in the province.

The province reports that 371,110 people in Ontario have received both doses of the COVID-19 vaccine and are now considered immunized against the disease.

In the last 24-hour period, officials said that 112,214 doses of the vaccine were administered to residents in the province.

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

There have been 5,139,984 doses administered since vaccines became available.