Ontario sees highest new daily COVID cases since April

The Ontario government is reporting 4,383 new COVID-19 cases across the province, a daily total not seen since April.

Wednesday’s case numbers came after two days where there were consecutive slight drops. On Tuesday there were 3,453 new cases and the day before saw 3,784 new confirmed infections. For historical context, April 23 saw 4,505 cases and on April 17 there were 4,362.

With the data posted on Wednesday, the new seven-day average of cases is 3,520 — up from 3,153 on Tuesday.

The government confirmed nine more people with COVID-19 have died, bringing the total to 10,133.

There were also 1,787 cases deemed resolved on Tuesday, elevating the cumulative total to 623,142. There have been 661,563 confirmed COVID-19 cases to date in Ontario.

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Toronto saw the highest number of cases out of all of Ontario’s public health units with 1,284 new confirmed infections. York Region and Ottawa followed with 479 and 363 new cases, respectively. Peel Region had 335 new cases while Durham Region had 238 and Halton Region had 223.

When it comes to hospitalizations related to COVID-19, there was a slight increase. In total, there are 420 patients testing positive in Ontario’s hospitals – up from 412 on Tuesday. There are 168 patients in provincial intensive care units — up by three compared to Tuesday’s reporting — and 108 of those people are on ventilators. According to the data, around 71.5 per cent of patients in ICUs where the status is known are either unvaccinated or partially vaccinated.

When it came to vaccinations on Tuesday, Health Minister Christine Elliott tweeted more than 230,000 first, second and third doses were administered.

Currently, 88 per cent of Ontario residents 12 and older have been fully vaccinated against COVID-19 while three per cent are partially vaccinated and nine per cent are unvaccinated. For children between five and 11, the newest age group eligible for vaccination, 412,875 first doses have been administered to date — representing 38.3 per cent of the total eligible population. Looking at booster doses, 2,126,049 were administered across the province to date.

With respect to COVID-19 testing, the government reported processing 55,381 tests within the most recent 24-hour period – more than 6,000 additional tests compared to the day before. The daily test positivity rate edged up to 10.7 per cent — up from 9.9 per cent on Tuesday.