Ontario reports highest single-day COVID case count in almost 7 months

Ontario is confirming more than 1,000 new cases of COVID-19 for the first time in almost seven months.

Health officials reported 1,031 new infections on Friday – the highest single-day total since May 30 when 1,033 cases were reported that day.

Of the new infections, 589 are in individuals who are not fully vaccinated or have an unknown status while 442 are in individuals who are fully vaccinated.

The number of individuals who are not fully vaccinated represent 23 per cent of the total population in Ontario, yet they account for 57 per cent of the new infections, according to provincial officials.

The seven-day average of new cases is now up to 866, the highest since early June.

The vast majority of Ontario’s COVID-19 cases have been identified as the Delta variant. As of Thursday, there were six confirmed cases of the new Omicron variant.

“We did anticipate when we developed the roadmap to reopen that there would be an increase in the case counts,” Health Minister Christine Elliott told a news conference in Ottawa.

“But I think the other really important factor is that even as cases are growing – which are primarily the Delta variant at this point – that our hospitalization rates remain low and our intensive care units remain low.”

Hospitalizations and ICU admissions due to COVID-19 remain relatively stable across the province. Of the 286 people in hospital, 225 are not fully vaccinated or have an unknown vaccine status while 61 are fully vaccinated. The number of people in ICU has fallen to 146 with 119 of them not fully vaccinated or having an unknown vaccine status.

Graph courtesy Dr. Jennifer Kwan

Toronto reported 133 new cases on Friday – its highest single-day total since early October. Peel Region added 60 new infections while York Region recorded 56 new cases.

The province says 39,748 tests were processed in the last 24 hour period, for a positivity rate of 2.9 per cent.

An additional four Ontarians have died as a result of COVID-19, raising the provincial total to 10,016.

The province reported 172 school-related cases of COVID-19 on Friday, 152 of them are in students. Just over 16 per cent of schools in Ontario have at least one case of the virus with nine schools currently closed due to an outbreak.

Provincial health officials say more than 35,000 doses of the COVID-19 vaccine were administered on Thursday, including 25,870 first doses – the fourth straight day more than 20,000 initial doses were administered. More than 90 per cent of eligible Ontarians 12-plus have 1received at least one dose of the vaccine to date while more than 87 per cent are now fully vaccinated.

Adults in Ontario over the age of 50 will be eligible for a COVID-19 booster shot starting Dec. 13. Appointments can be booked approximately six months (168 days) after receiving a second dose.

Ontario’s Chief Medical Officer of Health Dr. Kieran Moore says starting in January the province will further expand eligibility for booster doses based on age and risk, with an interval of six-to-eight months from the second dose.

New guidance is expected to come Friday from the National Advisory Committee on Immunization on the use of COVID-19 vaccine boosters when it comes to threat of the Omicron variant.

Cases of Omicron have already cropped up across the country and while most involve recent travel, one case, reported in Alberta, involved household transmission.