Ontario reports more than 500 new COVID-19 cases Thursday

Ontario is reporting more than 500 new cases of COVID-19 as the province surpasses another vaccine milestone.

Health officials confirmed 513 new infections on Thursday, marking the highest single-day total since June 13.

A week ago, there were just 213 new cases reported.

Of the new case total, 360 are unvaccinated individuals while 56 are partially vaccinated and only two are fully vaccinated. Another 111 people are either not fully vaccinated or have an unknown vaccination status at this time, according to health officials.

Toronto is reporting 105 new infections while York Region added 70 new cases – its highest single-day total since the end of May. Peel Region’s 64 new cases are the most in two months.

The seven-day rolling average of new cases continues to rise, now sitting at 374. A week ago, it was just below 200.

Graph courtesy: @jkwan_md

There were no new deaths reported, leaving the provincial total at 9,412.

Provincial health officials say 49,167 doses of the COVID-19 vaccine were administered on Wednesday, pushing the provincial total past 20 million. More than 72 per cent of Ontarians are fully vaccinated.

There are 116 people in hospital due to COVID-19 and 113 in the ICU with 76 of those patients currently on a ventilator.

The province processed 22,896 tests in the last 24 hour period for a positivity rate of 2.1 per cent – an increase from the 1.7 per cent of the previous two days.

Finance Minister Peter Bethlenfalvy announced Thursday that Ontario is putting an additional $2.2 billion toward COVID-19 spending, amid ongoing uncertainty about variants of concern.

He didn’t specify what the new spending would go toward, saying it’s available for the government to use to protect people’s health and the economy as needed.

Files from The Canadian Press were used in this report