Ontario reports almost 900 new COVID-19 cases Saturday, 15 additional deaths

For the second straight day Ontario is reporting more than 800 new cases of COVID-19.

Provincial health officials confirmed 857 new infections on Saturday, a slight increase from the 848 new cases reported the previous day.

Of the new cases, 646 – or 75 per cent – are in individuals who are not fully vaccinated or have an unknown vaccination status, while 211 are fully vaccinated.

Forty-one per cent of the new infections come from the GTA with Toronto reporting 170 new cases – its highest total in a week. Peel Region added 100 new cases, the second straight day it recorded more than 100 new infections while York Region confirmed 77 new cases.

The rolling seven-day average of new cases sits at 716. A week ago it was at 747.

According to provincial data, 363 people are hospitalized with COVID-19 (excluding ICU) and 180 are in the ICU.

Of hospitalized patients, 321 are not fully vaccinated or have an unknown vaccination status, while 42 are fully vaccinated.

Of the 180 patients in ICU, 165 are not fully vaccinated or have an unknown vaccination status, and 15 are fully vaccinated.

An additional 15 deaths were reported on Saturday, however, seven of those deaths took place more than a month ago and are now being added to the provincial tally after a data cleanup. That pushes the provincial total to 9,605 individuals who have died as a result of COVID-19.

Health officials say 26,268 tests were processed in the last 24 hour period, producing a positivity rate of 3.5 per cent.

The province did see an increase in vaccinations with 40,220 shots administered on Friday with 16,532 of them being first doses – a slight increase over the previous day. Health officials say more than 78 per cent of Ontarians 12+ have been fully vaccinated.

Starting Monday, Toronto Public Health will hold a five-day pop-up vaccination clinic at Union Station and the Rexdale Public Library as part of its mobile strategy to help get as many residents as possible vaccinated.

“Making vaccination easy and accessible is one of the best ways to reach people who haven’t had the chance to get vaccinated, or haven’t yet taken the step toward vaccination,” said Dr. Eileen de Villa, Toronto’s Medical Officer of Health. “We’ll continue to offer as many clinics as we can in neighbourhoods where the need is greatest and traffic is highest so we can achieve our City-wide vaccination target of 90 per cent.”

Since the province announced plans for a proof of vaccination system, Toronto Public Health says there’s been a 30 per cent increase in first dose vaccinations in the city.

The Union Station clinic will run from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. while the Rexdale Library clinic goes from 2 p.m. to 6 p.m. each day.