Ontario reports fewer than 200 COVID-19 cases for 5th straight day

Ontario is reporting 146 new COVID-19 cases and seven deaths on Tuesday.

It is the fifth straight day the province has reported fewer than 200 new infections.

The test positivity rate is 0.8 per cent, down from 1.1 per cent one week ago.

There were nearly 17,489 tests completed in the last 24-hour period.

Locally, there are 43 new cases in Toronto, 36 in the Region of Waterloo, 13 in Peel Region, 11 in Hamilton and 10 in Middlesex-London.

There were another 201 resolved cases, dropping the active case count. Monday was the first time in 11 days that new infections have outnumbered resolved cases.

The rolling seven-day average has dropped to 170, reaching the lowest point since Sept. 9.

The province reported 146 new cases and no deaths on Sunday.

There are now 192 people in the ICU with COVID-19 complications and 123 ICU patients on a ventilator. ICU numbers have dropped to the lowest point since Dec. 2.

There were 176,834 COVID-19 vaccine doses administered in the last 24-hour period.

As of 8 p.m. Monday, 17,296,458 doses of the COVID-19 vaccine have been administered across the province – 78.7 per cent of Ontario residents 12 and older have received at least one dose while 55.1 per cent are now fully vaccinated.

Over 7 million Ontarians have now received both doses of the COVID-19 vaccine.

York Region opened up close to 60,000 new COVID-19 vaccine appointments on Tuesday morning.

The appointments are for first or second doses and are available to anyone aged 12 and older.

Booking can be done through the York Region website.

Some mass vaccination sites in York and Peel Region will start accepting walk-ins for those still searching for their first dose this week.

There are now growing calls from health experts for Ontario to mandate vaccinations for health-care and long-term care workers after a growing number of European countries have implemented similar policies.

In Ontario, the provincial government has semi-required long-term care workers to get vaccinated. Workers don’t need to get a jab if they have a documented medical reason – they can also opt to take an educational course on vaccines, which would allow them to continue to work without having received a shot.

Many recent outbreaks in the Region of Waterloo are being traced back to unvaccinated workers in vulnerable settings. Half of the staff in five long-term outbreaks in the last month were found to be unvaccinated.

There has been no word yet from the Ford government that any such policy to make vaccines mandatory is being discussed for Ontario.