Ontario reports just under 500 new COVID-19 cases for 12th straight day

22 Oct 2021 | Health | 198 |
Ontario reports just under 500 new COVID-19 cases for 12th straight day

Ontario is reporting 492 new COVID-19 cases on Friday, the 12th day in a row the count is fewer than 500. The provincial case total now stands at 596,772.

Of the 492 new cases recorded, the data showed 248 were unvaccinated people, 21 were partially vaccinated people, 167 were fully vaccinated people and for 56 people the vaccination status was unknown.

According to Friday’s report, 64 cases were recorded in Toronto, 59 in Peel Region, 39 in Sudbury, 38 in Ottawa, 33 in York Region and 32 in Middlesex-London.

All other local public health units reported fewer than 30 new cases in the provincial report.

The death toll in the province has risen to 9,839 as 12 more deaths were recorded. Of which 11 deaths occurred within the last month with one death that occurred more than a month ago, the ministry of health said.

As of 8 p.m. on Thursday, 25,770 vaccines (8,962 for a first shot and 16,808 for a second shot) were administered in the last day.

There are more than 10.9 million people fully immunized with two doses, which is 83.6 per cent of the eligible (12 and older) population. First dose coverage stands at 87.7 per cent.

Meanwhile, 583,512 Ontario residents were reported to have recovered from COVID-19, which is about 98 per cent of known cases. Resolved cases increased by 415 from the previous day.

Active cases in Ontario now stand at 3,421— up from the previous day when it was at 3,356, but is down from Oct. 15 when it was at 3,974. At the peak of the second wave coronavirus surge in January, active cases hit just above 30,000. In the third wave in April, active cases topped 43,000.

The seven-day average has now reached 406, which is down from the week prior when it was 465. A month ago, the seven-day average was around 700.

The government said 28,906 tests were processed in the previous 24 hours. There are 11,503 tests currently under investigation.

Test positivity hit 1.4 per cent. Last week, test positivity was also at 1.4 per cent.

Ontario reported 261 people in general hospital wards with COVID-19 (down by 13 from the previous day) with 149 patients in intensive care units (down by 12) and 121 patients in intensive care units on a ventilator (down by 14).

In the third wave peak, which was the worst wave for hospitalizations, the province saw as many as 900 patients in ICUs with COVID and almost 2,400 in general hospital wards.

Provincial officials announced they would start including the vaccination status of those hospitalized due to COVID-19 as part of their daily COVID-19 data reporting. They noted the new dataset will grow and improve over time as more information is collected. There may be a discrepancy due to how and when the information for both is collected.

For those in general hospital wards with COVID, 114 were unvaccinated, 11 were partially vaccinated and 36 were fully vaccinated. For those in ICUs, 75 were unvaccinated while 8 were partially vaccinated and 21 were fully vaccinated.

Officials have listed breakdown data for the new VOCs (variants of concern) detected so far in the province which consists of:

“Alpha” the B.1.1.7 VOC (first detected in the United Kingdom): 146,498 variant cases, which is up by 3 since the previous day. This strain dominated Ontario’s third wave.

“Delta” the B.1.617.2 VOC (first detected in India): 20,190 variant cases, which is up by 115 since the previous day. This strain is dominating Ontario’s fourth wave.

“Beta” the B.1.351 VOC (first detected in South Africa): 1,503 variant cases, which is unchanged since the previous day.

“Gamma” the P.1 VOC (first detected in Brazil): 5,230 variant cases, which is unchanged since the previous day.

NOTE: It takes several days for positive COVID-19 tests to be re-examined for the exact variant. Therefore, there may be more variant cases than overall cases in daily reporting.

Here is a breakdown of the total cases in Ontario by gender and age:

Here is a breakdown of the total deaths related to COVID-19 by age:

Meanwhile, government figures show there are currently 550 out of 4,844 schools in Ontario with at least one COVID-19 case.

On Friday, Ontario reported 95 new COVID-19 cases in schools — with 84 among students, 10 among staff and one person was not identified. The data was collected between Wednesday afternoon and Thursday afternoon — a 24 hour period.

There are 1,090 active infections among both students and staff, a decrease from 1,126 active cases reported Wednesday.

Two schools are closed as a result of positive cases.

According to the Ontario Ministry of Long-Term Care, there have been 3,824 deaths reported among residents and patients in long-term care homes across Ontario, which is unchanged since the previous day. Thirteen virus-related deaths in total have been reported among staff.

There are 5 current outbreaks in homes, which is a decrease of two from the previous day.

The ministry also indicated there are currently 14 active cases among long-term care residents and 19 active cases among staff — down by three and down by two, respectively, in the last day.

by Global News