Ontario reported 1,476 new cases of COVID-19 and eight new deaths, with labs reporting that more than one out of every 20 tests received is positive, the highest level of positivity since early May 2021 on Sunday.
The rolling seven-day average of new cases is now 1,236, up from 1,194 yesterday and 761 a week ago.
On Saturday, 1,607 new cases were reported in Ontario, a seven-month high, and 1,452 on Friday.
The Ministry of Health says 576 of Sunday’s cases involve unvaccinated people, 36 involve partially vaccinated people, 771 involve fully vaccinated people and 93 involve people with unknown vaccination status.
Unvaccinated and partially vaccinated people make up 41 per cent of Sunday’s cases but only 23 per cent of Ontario’s population. This ratio has been on a downward slide for months owing perhaps to waning immunity among those fully vaccinated and the rising impact in recent weeks of the Omicron variant.
The Ontario COVID-19 Science Advisory Table says more than 17 per cent of all COVID-19 infections in the province now show initial signs of being Omicron.
A research executive with a major COVID-19 testing lab at University Health Network in Toronto says up to 15 per cent of samples at their labs now show a high probability of being Omicron.
Ontario labs processed 38,477 new specimens, generating a positivity rate of 5.4 per cent. It’s the highest test positivity has been since May 25.
There have now been 10,078 deaths due to COVID-19 in Ontario since March 2020, with more than 611,000 recoveries.
Fifty-three Ontario residents have died of COVID-19 in the last week.
There are now more than 10,800 known active cases of COVID-19 in the province, the highest burden of infection seen in Ontario since May 31.
The rapid increase in cases across the province prompted the Ford government to accelerate booking of third COVID-19 vaccine shots and tighten the vaccine passport system.
The Ministry of Health says there are 158 patients in hospital ICU wards due to COVID-19, up 12 from Saturday.
Across the GTHA, Toronto reported 226 new cases, Peel Region reported 96 cases, York Region reported 73 new cases and Durham reported 53 new cases.
Halton reported 52 new cases and Hamilton reported 67 additional cases.
The province says it administered nearly 62,000 COVID-19 vaccine doses on Saturday.
Of those, 23,642 were first doses, 4,557 were second doses and 33,721 were third doses.
Eighty-one per cent of Ontario residents have at least one dose of a COVID-19 vaccine and 77 per cent have two doses.
Approximately 7.5 per cent of Ontario’s population has received a third dose of a COVID-19 vaccine.
Source_ The Canadian Press
