Ontario is reporting 788 new COVID-19 cases today as the seven-day rolling average of new infections approaches 800.
Today’s case count is down from Sunday, when 964 new infections were confirmed, the highest single-day tally reported since May. But the number of new infections confirmed today is a substantial jump from the 627 cases confirmed last Monday.
The seven-day rolling average of new cases now stands at 782, up from 656 one week ago.
Of the new cases confirmed today, 412 involve those who are unvaccinated, 27 are in those who are partially vaccinated, 315 cases involve fully immunized individuals, and 34 are in those with an unknown vaccinated status.
Those who have not been vaccinated against COVID-19 continue to be disproportionately impacted by the virus as 52 per cent of the cases logged today occurred in the 20 per cent of the population who remain unvaccinated.
Over the weekend, two cases of the Omicron variant were detected in Ontario, the first cases of the variant to be found in Canada.
The World Health Organization officially declared Omicron a “variant of concern” last week, citing preliminary indicators that suggest it may be more transmissible than earlier virus variants.
“By the time you discover this virus in one location, it really is in many, many locations,” Dr. Isaac Bogoch, an infectious diseases specialist with Toronto General Hospital, told CP24 on Monday.
“The fact that there (are) two cases here in Ontario probably means there may be even more cases elsewhere in Canada.”
Ontario’s Chief Medical Officer of Health Dr. Kieran Moore said more data is needed to fully understand what impact the variant will have on the province.
“If it is a less lethal virus, less impact on the hospital sector, and our vaccines continue to work against it, we will continue our current strategy and not have to have any further public health restrictions,” he said.
“I don’t have a complete crystal ball but we’ll have greater clarity in the coming weeks of how as a province we would have to respond to this new threat.”
Moore urged members of the public to remain “calm” and continue to view the situation from an evidence-based perspective.
“If we see widespread Omicron across Ontario, which is not the case at present, then we could review any measures that we need to take at a provincial level as well as certainly work with our public health agency colleagues about limiting the number of international flights potentially to one or two airports where we could have concentrated testing and assessment capacity,” he said.
“The good news in all of this is the impact on our hospital system is manageable at this point. We have intensive care unit capacity. We are watching those numbers like a hawk but the length of stay for these individuals in the intensive care unit it getting shorter.”
With 26,016 tests processed over the past, the Ministry of Health is reporting a provincewide positivity rate of 3.5 per cent, on par with 3.4 per cent last Monday.
The number of COVID-19 patients receiving treatment in intensive care at Ontario hospitals is now 148, up from 133 last week.
Three more virus-related deaths were confirmed today, bringing Ontario’s COVID-19 death toll to 9,997. Two deaths occurred in the last month and one occurred more than one month ago, according to the province.
Toronto (106), Windsor (84), Simcoe-Muskoka (80), Peel Region (49), and York Region (50) are the public health units with the most new illnesses today (48).
The number of current COVID-19 cases in Ontario has increased to 6,816, up from 5,597 one week earlier.
Source_ The Canadian Press
