For the second day in a running, Ontario reported over 500 new COVID-19 cases as the province expanded eligibility for booster shots on Saturday.
Officials from the province’s health department reported 508 new coronavirus illnesses Wednesday, down from 563 the day before but up from 356 a week before.
Last year on this date, the province reported 1,003 new cases.
Officials reported 331 new infections on Tuesday, 378 on Wednesday, and 438 on Thursday earlier this week.
The seven-day rolling average continued to rise hitting 426 on Saturday, compared to 353 a week ago.
Among the latest cases, 253 individuals are unvaccinated, 15 are partially vaccinated, 218 are fully vaccinated and 22 have an unknown vaccination status.
So far, 88 per cent of eligible Ontarians have received one dose of a COVID-19 vaccine and nearly 85 per cent have received two doses and are considered fully vaccinated.
Children under 12 years old are not yet eligible for a vaccine.
Another 370 people recovered from the virus in the past 24 hours, resulting in 3,533 active cases across Ontario.
The Ministry of Health reported three more virus-related deaths today which occured in the last month.
The ministry also removed three deaths from the cumulative death toll due to data cleaning
The province’s virus-related death toll remains unchanged from yesterday at 9,896.
Ontario labs processed more than 30,100 tests in the past 24 hours, producing a positivity rate of 1.9 per cent, according to the ministry.
The public health regions that recorded the most new COVID-19 cases today include Toronto (76), Simcoe Muskoka (51), Ottawa (49) and Peel Region (46).
There are currently 203 patients with the virus in hospitals across the province and 130 in intensive care units.
115 ICU patients are not fully vaccinated or have an uncertain vaccination status, according to Elliott, while 15 are fully vaccinated.
Since January 2020, there have been 602,595 lab-confirmed coronavirus cases and 589,166 recoveries.
On Saturday, the government announced that nearly three million more Ontarians are now eligible for third doses of COVID-19 vaccines, including people aged 70 and up, health-care workers or essential caregivers in congregate settings, people who received two doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine or one dose of Janssen, and Indigenous peoples and their non-Indigenous household members.
Source_ cp24.com
