For the second day in a row, Ontario has recorded over 1,000 new COVID-19 infections and eight deaths, as more cases of the Omicron strain emerge across the province.
On Saturday, provincial health officials recorded 1,053 new cases, up from 1,031 the day before and 854 a week ago.
Today’s case count is the highest since May 29th, when 1,057 illnesses were reported.
On Tuesday, 687 additional instances were reported, followed by 780 on Wednesday, and 959 on Thursday.
The seven-day rolling average hit 895 on Saturday, a notable climb from 729 at this point last week.
Among the latest cases, 499 or 47 per cent of the individuals are fully vaccinated, 469 are unvaccinated, 25 have received one dose of a COVID-19 vaccine and 60 have an unknown vaccination status.
To date, 84 per cent of Ontario residents five years and older have received one dose of a COVID-19 vaccine and over 80 per cent have received two doses and are considered fully vaccinated.
Children between five and 11 in the province started receiving Pfizer’s COVID-19 vaccine last week shortly after it was approved by Health Canada.
Seven of the new deaths reported today occurred in the last month and the other death occurred more than one month ago, according to the Ministry of Health.
The province’s virus-related death toll stands at 10,024.
Ontario labs processed more than 36,200 tests in the past 24 hours, producing a positivity rate of 3.5 per cent, compared to three per cent a week ago, the ministry says.
In the Greater Toronto Area, Toronto logged 139 new COVID-19 cases, while 59 were reported in Peel Region, 54 in York, 30 in Halton and 29 in Durham.
Elsewhere in the province, 101 new infections were recorded in Simcoe Muskoka, 54 in Windsor-Essex and 45 in Middlesex-London.
The ministry says there are 284 people with the virus in hospitals across the province and 160 in intensive care units.
Health Minister Christine Elliott says 136 of the ICU patients are not fully vaccinated or have an unknown vaccination status and 24 are fully vaccinated.
Yesterday, Toronto Public Health confirmed the first three cases of the Omicron variant in the city bringing the province’s total to 11.
Two of the three individuals who tested positive for the variant returned from a trip to Nigeria while the other individual travelled to Switzerland.
Source_ the Canadian Press
