Ontario reports fewest new COVID-19 cases in 2 weeks
Posted July 26, 2021 10:16 am.
Last Updated July 26, 2021 1:11 pm.
Ontario is reporting 119 new COVID-19 cases and three deaths on Monday.
It is the lowest daily increase of new infections in two weeks. The province has reported fewer than 200 cases for 18 straight days.
The test positivity rate is 1.0 per cent, the same as one week ago.
There were over 11,930 tests completed in the last 24-hour period.
Locally, there are 22 new cases in Toronto, 15 in Hamilton, 14 in the Region of Waterloo and 13 in Peel Region.
The active case count in the province decreased by 18 – there were 137 resolved cases.
The rolling seven-day average is at 157 cases, down slightly from one week ago.
The province reported 172 cases and two deaths on Sunday.
There are now 131 people in the ICU with COVID-19 complications and 79 ICU patients on a ventilator.
Graphics courtesy of @jwan_md
There were 65,920 COVID-19 vaccine doses administered in the last 24-hour period.
As of 8 p.m. Sunday, 80.4 per cent of Ontario residents 12 and older have received at least one dose while 66.7 per cent are now fully vaccinated.
According to the CEO of the Ontario Pharmacists Association the largest barrier remaining in the fight to get more residents their first dose is vaccine hesitancy.
Justin Bates says the hesitant group is split between people who are anti-vaccine and those who are fence-sitters. He says the province needs to make it a point to target the latter.
“It’s really the fence-sitters that we are targeting with education,” says Bates. “Having that conversation with a trusted health care provider to try to give them confidence in the science and technology, the safety and efficacy.”
“It’s unlikely we will be able to convert the anti-vaxxers, which could be about 10 per cent of the population, but we are still targeting a 90 per cent fully vaccinated threshold that will allow us to achieve herd immunity.”
Since the end of June, the number of doses being administered in the province has been dwindling.
The federal government is expecting about five-million doses of COVID-19 vaccine this week — enough to fully inoculate all eligible Canadians.
This week’s shipments will bring the total number of doses received up to 68-million.
Officials say that will be enough to administer two doses to all 33.2-million Canadians aged 12 and over.
As of Sunday, over 62 per cent of Canadians 12 and up had been fully vaccinated, and over 80 per cent had received at least one dose.
An estimated six million Canadians have yet to roll up their sleeves for either dose.
Graphics courtesy of @jwan_md
