Ontario reports nearly 6,000 new COVID-19 cases over past two days, ICU admissions reach all-time high

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 — Health officials in Ontario are reporting nearly 6,000 new COVID-19 infections over the past two days as ICU admissions related to the disease reach an all-time high.

The province says it logged 2,938 infections on Monday and 3,041 on Sunday. The Ministry of Health did not report numbers yesterday due to the Easter Sunday holiday.

Right now, there are 494 patients being treated in an intensive care unit with a COVID-related critical illness, the government said.

Monday’s report brings the total number of lab-confirmed COVID-19 cases in Ontario to 364,537. This number includes 331,600 recoveries and 7,450 deaths. At least 10 of those deaths were recorded in the last 24 hours and another 12 were recorded on Sunday.

Labs across Ontario processed 46,380 tests Sunday, yielding a positivity rate of 6.5 per cent. That number climbed to 7.8 per cent on Monday with 36,563 swabs processed in the last 24-hour period, according to the province.

The seven-day average for number of cases reported across the province is 2,757. A week ago, that number was 2,094. Two weeks ago, it was 1,599.

There are currently 25,487 active cases of COVID-19 in Ontario.

On Saturday, Ontario entered a provincewide shutdown to curb the spread of the novel coronavirus.

Where are the new COVID-19 cases?

Most of the cases added over the last two days were found in Toronto, Peel Region, York Region, and Ottawa.

According to the province, Toronto logged 906 cases on Monday and 847 on Sunday. Meanwhile, Peel Region confirmed 533 cases on Monday and 644 on Sunday. York Region recorded 391 on Monday and 310 on Sunday. Ottawa found 230 on Monday and 214 on Sunday.

Other public health regions that recorded case numbers in the triple digits in the past 48 hours include Niagara Region, Durham Region, and Middlesex-London.

Mutations detected in more than 1,600 COVID-19 tests over past two days

The province says it found more than 1,600 COVID-19 tests that screened positive for a mutation of the disease in the past two days.

At least 1,011 of those tests were flagged on Sunday and 655 were flagged on Monday.

In total, 26,125 tests have screened positive for a COVID-19 mutation, though genomic sequencing to determine their lineage to a known variant of concern has not yet taken place.

There are 2,135 confirmed cases of B.1.1.7 (U.K. variant) in Ontario with 93 more infections recorded in the last 48 hours.

The number of P.1 (Brazilian variant) and B.1.351 (South African variant) infections sits at 103 and 71, respectively.

Update on COVID-19 vaccinations

As of today, 322,197 Ontarians have received their first and second shots of a COVID-19 vaccine and are considered by the government to be fully vaccinated against the disease.

Since the province began its vaccine rollout in December, 2,545,640 needles have gone into arms across the province.