Ontario reports less than 4,000 new COVID-19 cases, ICU admissions near 900

For just the third time in the last week, Ontario is reporting fewer than 4,000 new cases of COVID-19 as ICU admissions approach 900.

Provincial health officials confirmed 3,947 new infections on Sunday, a slight decline from the 4,094 cases reported the previous day. The rolling seven-day average of new cases continues to slowly decline for the fourth straight day, now sitting at 4,050.

An additional 2,632 variants of concern were identified on Sunday with the B.1.1.7 variant first detected in the UK accounting for the majority of cases. That brings the total number of VOCs across the province to 52,909.

Hospitalizations remained over 2,000 as variants of concern continue to drive the surge of new cases in the province. There are currently 2,126 in hospital with COVID-19 and of those, 851 are now in intensive care. A week ago, there were 741 patients in ICU.

Toronto reported 1,136 new infections. That is the 15th consecutive day with more than 1,000 new cases. The city also passed a grim milestone Sunday, with over 3,011 deaths reported since the pandemic began.

Peel Region added 901 new cases, while there were 406 in York Region.

An additional 24 people have died as a result of the virus, raising the provincial total to 7,911.

The province completed just under 47,000 tests in the last 24 hour period, with a positivity rate of 8.7 per cent – a rise from the 7.8 of the previous day.

Vaccinations fell below 100,000 for the first time in four days with only 99,525 doses administered on Saturday. The total number of Ontarians who have received at least one dose of the COVID-19 vaccine now sits at more than 4.6 million while over 360,000 have been fully vaccinated.