Ontario reports fewer than 500 new COVID-19 cases

Ontario is reporting another drop in COVID-19 cases, with 481 new infections confirmed on Tuesday, along with one death.

However, the seven-day rolling average continues to increase, hitting 591 today after sitting at 492 last week.

Health Minister Christine Elliott says 301 people are hospitalized with the virus, and 228 patients are not fully vaccinated or have an unknown vaccination status. Seventy-three are fully vaccinated. There are 139 people in ICU, and 120 of them are not fully vaccinated or have an unknown vaccination status. Nineteen patients are fully vaccinated.

Of Tuesday’s new cases, Elliott confirms 292 of them are in those not fully vaccinated or have an unknown vaccination status, while 189 are fully vaccinated.

As of Tuesday, 88 per cent of Ontarians have received one dose of a COVID-19 vaccine, while 85 per cent have been treated with two shots.

Ontario’s effective reproduction number — the average number of additional infections caused by one infection — is 1.21 this week. The R(t) was 0.87 one month ago, from Oct. 13 to Oct. 19.

Toronto’s public health unit reported a considerable drop in new cases on Tuesday with 56 after the City confirmed 85 and 76 new infections in each of the past two days. There are 31 new cases in Peel, 23 in York and 17 in Durham Regions. Simcoe-Muskoka also sees a notable drop in new infections with 33 on Tuesday after reporting as many as 68 cases on Sunday.

This comes as Toronto celebrates a vaccine milestone, with the City surpassing five million administered doses as of Monday. Nearly 85 per cent of eligible Toronto residents are fully vaccinated, and almost 88 per cent have received one dose.

Ontario reported 552 cases of COVID-19 on Monday and 666 daily cases on Sunday — the highest daily coronavirus case count since Oct. 2, when the province saw 704 new infections.

The Southwestern Public Health unit in Ontario is considering adopting new public health measures to mitigate the rise in COVID-19 case counts.

The medical officer of health for the counties of Oxford and Elgin says the daily counts of COVID-19 new infections have been higher than those in the rest of the province.

Dr. Joyce Lock says the positivity rate in the daily COVID-19 tests in her unit is continuing to climb every week, reaching about 5.1 per cent recently. St. Thomas Elgin General Hospital, one of three hospitals in the region, says it’s facing a dire situation, with the highest number of patients requiring critical care since the start of the pandemic.

The public health unit in Sudbury, Ont. reinstated capacity rules and other measures last week amid a rapid local rise in cases. Sudbury health officials confirmed 29 new COVID-19 cases on Tuesday.

The province is reporting 245 new COVID-19 cases in its schools, while 222 of the new infections were student-related.

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With files from The Canadian Press