Ontario reports fewer than 600 new COVID-19 cases, 7-day average continues to fall

Ontario is reporting 573 new COVID-19 cases and 10 additional deaths on Friday.

The daily case count is down from 668 one week ago and it is the sixth straight day the province has reported fewer than 600 daily cases.

Health Minister Christine Elliott says 381 cases are in individuals who are not fully vaccinated or have an unknown vaccination status and 192 are in fully vaccinated individuals.

There are now 154 people in the ICU due to COVID-19 and 139 of them are not fully vaccinated or have an unknown vaccination status.

The rolling seven-day average of cases is down to 551, reaching the lowest point since Aug. 21.

There were 37,118 tests completed in the last 24-hour period for a test positivity rate of 1.8 per cent.

The province administered another 30,575 vaccine doses in the last 24-hour period and has now administered more than 22 million doses total.

There are now 86.8 per cent of Ontarians 12 and older who have received at least one dose, 82.0 per cent are now fully vaccinated.

The province is reporting another 126 school-related cases among students and staff. As of Friday, nearly 16 per cent of schools in the province have at least one COVID-19 case and nine schools have been forced to close.

Ontario’s Chief Medical Officer of Health Dr. Kieran Moore released his guidelines for Thanksgiving and Halloween on Thursday.

Moore said it is safe to have a gathering with people you don’t live with, as long as you keep within the gathering limits of 25 indoors and 100 outdoors and follow all public health measures.

He also said if all the people attending the event are vaccinated, it is safe to remove face coverings.

More details on celebrating all three events over the next month can be found on the Ontario website.