TORONTO – Another slight decline in infections, but many deaths: 11 in a single day, today, in Ontario, where 3,453 new infections were recorded, down from 3,784 on Monday and 4,177 on Sunday, but still clearly increase from 1,429 a week ago. In recent weeks, cases have steadily increased across the province where the Omicron variant of Covid-19 – which experts say has a doubling time of 2.9 days – now accounts for 88% of cases. 

The seven-day moving average of new cases has now reached 3,153 cases (one week it was 1,400), a number not seen since May 8, when the average was 3,193. With more than 49,200 tests carried out today, the positivity rate is at 9.9%, a significant increase from 6.6% a week ago: today’s positivity rate is the highest observed since the end of April.

Of today’s cases, 673 involved unvaccinated individuals, 132 partially vaccinated, 148 with unknown vaccination status and 2,500 fully vaccinated. The unvaccinated, who represent approximately 18% of Ontario’s population, account for 19% of cases today.

Cases that are distributed as follows: in the Greater Toronto Area, Toronto 901, Peel region 280 and then 345 in York, 245 in Halton and 160 in Durham. Total active and known cases in Ontario are 25,702, up from 12,032 a week ago.

There are currently 412 people with the virus in Ontario hospitals and 165 of them are in intensive care units. 128 of the ICU patients are not fully vaccinated or have unknown vaccination status and 37 are fully vaccinated.

As we said at the beginning, another 11 deaths were reported today, bringing the death toll in Ontario, since the beginning of the pandemic, to 10,123.

Quebec today broke the record for new infections once again, reporting 5,043 new cases out of 42,303 samples analyzed. There are now 29,318 active cases in the province.

Another 8 deaths have also been confirmed, for a total of 11,650 since the start of the pandemic.

Of the new cases, 1,219 involve people who were unvaccinated or partially vaccinated with a dose received less than two weeks ago, 238 people who received one dose more than two weeks ago, and 3,586 people who received two doses more than seven days ago.

Admissions rose by 18, bringing the number of people in Quebec hospitals to 415. Of these, 88 people are in intensive care, up by 6. Of the newly hospitalized, the vast majority are unvaccinated or partially vaccinated people. None of the patients who entered the hospital today are fully vaccinated (with two doses).

One last significant fact: on this day last year, Quebec had 2,116 new cases, less than half the amount recorded yesterday, but the number of people in the hospital was more than double (1,056, 138 in intensive care) and , in a single day, the deaths had been 38.

Photo by Jakayla Toney on Unsplash