Ontario reports more than 3,000 new COVID-19 cases for 2nd straight day

For the second straight day, Ontario is reporting more than 3,000 new cases of COVID-19.

Provincial health officials confirmed 3,301 new infections on Saturday – a slight increase over the 3,124 cases reported the previous day.

That is more than double the case count reported a week ago as the seven-day average of new cases topped 2,000 for the first time in seven months.

Of the new cases, 963 are in individuals who are unvaccinated or have an unknown vaccine status while 2,338 are in fully vaccinated individuals.

Hospitalizations and ICU admissions continue to climb week-over-week but at a much slower pace than in previous waves. There are 384 individuals hospitalized due to COVID-19 with individuals who are unvaccinated or with an unknown vaccine status making up 294 of those cases. Of the 154 people in the ICU, 121 are not fully vaccinated or have an unknown status.

Graph courtesy Dr. Jennifer Kwan @jkwan_md

Toronto confirmed 851 new cases of coronavirus while the City of Ottawa added 256 new infections on Saturday. Peel Region reported 246 new cases while York Region confirmed 242.

An additional four Ontarians have died as a result of the virus, bringing the provincial total up to 10,111.

The province processed 54,407 tests in the previous 24-hour period, for a positivity rate of 8.9 per cent – the highest since May 10.

Health officials administered 168,923 doses of the COVID-19 vaccine on Friday including 14,339 first doses and more than 149,000 booster shots. Over 90 per cent of Ontarians aged 12 and older have received at least one dose of the vaccine and almost 88 per cent are fully vaccinated.

Thirty-five per cent of kids between the ages of 5 and 11 have now received at least one dose of the COVID-19 vaccine after 10,439 shots were administered on Friday.

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As of Saturday, crowd limits are back in effect at stadiums, concert halls and other venues with a capacity of more than 1,000 in an effort to slow the spread of the highly contagious Omicron variant.

Restaurants, retailers and other indoor settings are also subject to 50 per cent capacity limits as well.

Starting Sunday, there is a cap on indoor social gatherings from 25 to 10, and the limit on outdoor social gatherings goes from 100 to 25.

On Tuesday, Canada will reimpose a requirement for everyone entering the country to have a pre-arrival negative molecular test result for COVID-19, even if travellers are returning after being away for under 72 hours.

Federal Health Minister Jean-Yves Duclos advised Canadians against travelling outside the country, warning that if they get sick abroad they could become stranded, with the government unable to do much to help them.

Ontario’s COVID-19 Science Advisory Table revealed earlier this week that without additional public health measures, daily case counts could top 10,000 by January.