Ontario sees more than 300 new COVID-19 cases for 4th straight day
Posted August 9, 2021 10:17 am.
Last Updated August 9, 2021 11:46 am.
Ontario is reporting 325 new cases of COVID-19 and no additional deaths on Monday.
Cases are up from 168 on Monday last week and the province has now seen more than 300 new infections for four straight days.
The test positivity rate is 2.3 per cent, up from 1.3 per cent one week ago. It is the highest positivity rate since June 25.
There were 15,805 tests completed.
Locally, there are 90 new cases in Toronto, 47 in Peel Region, 29 in York Region, 29 in Hamilton and 26 in Windsor-Essex.
The active case count in the province increase by 133 to 2,375. There were another 155 resolved cases.
There are now 115 people in the ICU with COVID-19 complications and 70 ICU patients on a ventilator.
Graphics courtesy of @jwan_md
Ontario administered 29,949 vaccine doses in the last 24-hour period.
As of 8:00 p.m. Sunday, 19,902,159 doses of the COVID-19 vaccine have been administered, with 82 per cent of Ontario residents 12 and older having received at least one dose, 71.7 per cent are now fully vaccinated.
Many experts now agree that Ontario has entered a fourth wave of COVID-19 infections and the worry is the loosening of federal border restrictions could make things worse moving forward.
When the federal government announced the decision to reopen the land border to non-essential fully vaccinated travellers from the U.S., Ontario had a seven-day rolling average of 155 cases. That average now sits at 283 cases.
Graphics courtesy of @jwan_md
Biostatistician Ryan Imgrund argues that Ontario’s fourth wave will be fueled by the Ford government’s refusal to implement a proof of vaccination system.
“Without a doubt, Alberta, B.C., Ontario, Quebec and Saskatchewan are now in the fourth wave,” says Imgrund in a Sunday tweet. “The missing province? Manitoba. It requires proof of immunization.”
Pressure continues to build on Doug Ford to introduce some sort of vaccine passport across the province now that Quebec Premier announced a passport for his province.
The announcement in Quebec sparked a surge in new vaccine appointments, almost doubling overnight to more than 11,000. And that is what some medical experts want to see happen in Ontario.
The Canadian Chamber of Commerce says vaccine passports or digital vaccination certificates would help to prevent future waves of the pandemic from forcing a resurgence of financially disastrous lockdowns by enabling those with low risk to participate in events, move freely and go about their daily lives.
