TORONTO – The new cases of Covid-19 in Ontario are well above 600. Today the province reported 660 infections in 24 hours, against 486 on Tuesday: the seven-day average is now 625 (Tuesday it was 600, a week ago it was 496). It was enough to do more tests (26,406 in the last 24 hours, while on Tuesday 17,369 were made) to raise the average. Now the provincial positivity rate is 2.4%, however slightly down compared to last week. 

Of the new cases confirmed today, 525 have been detected in individuals who are not fully vaccinated or have an unknown vaccination status and 135 are in those who are fully immunized. Unvaccinated and single-dose people represent only 28% of Ontario’s total population, but 79.5% of today’s case count.

This is the territorial distribution: 151 in Toronto, 93 in the York region, 86 in Hamilton, 52 in the Peel region and 51 in Windsor. Additionally, another virus-related death was confirmed today: Ontario’s death toll is now 9,472.

There are currently 161 ICU patients in Ontario hospitals, up from 156 on Tuesday and 128 seven days ago. Ontario Minister of Health Christine Elliott said today that only 7 of the patients in intensive care were fully vaccinated. The number of Covid-19 patients who are hospitalized but not receiving intensive care care is now 283, up from 174 a week ago. Among this group of patients, 253 are not fully vaccinated or have an unknown vaccination status and 30 are fully immunized, Elliott herself added. About 82 percent of people 12 and older in Ontario received at least one dose of a vaccine, and 75 percent had both injections.

Ontario health officials also listed breakdown data for the variants today. Here they are. “Alfa” B.1.1.7 VOC (English variant): 145,918 cases, an increase of 79 compared to the previous day. “Beta” B.1.351 VOC (South African variant): 1,500 cases (number unchanged). “Gamma” P.1 VOC (Brazilian variant): 5,221 cases (number unchanged). “Delta” B.1.617.2 VOC (Indian variant): 8,030 variant cases, an increase of 365 compared to the previous day. As you can see, the Delta variant dominates, followed at a distance by the Alfa variant, while the “South African” and the “Brazilian” appear to have almost disappeared.

Moving on to Quebec, the province recorded 550 new cases today (up from 345 on Tuesday), with the total number of infected people rising to 386,015 since the start of the pandemic. The health officials of the province also confirmed another death (which occurred before August 18 last year), for a total of 11,284. Admissions increased by eight, bringing the number of people in Quebec hospitals to 110. Of these, 33 are in intensive care (+4).

As for Alberta, the situation “photographed” on Tuesday saw the detection of 629 new cases across the province, bringing the total to 245,598. Of these, 7,931 cases are active while 235,312 people have recovered. 2,355 the inhabitants of Alberta who instead lost their lives due to the virus. At the provincial level, 258 patients are currently hospitalized, of which 57 are in intensive care.

In British Columbia, 641 new cases were reported on Tuesday, hours after the province reintroduced public health measures requiring people to wear masks in all indoor public spaces. No new deaths were reported, leaving B.C.’s total Covid-19 death toll. to 1.801. The number of people admitted to hospital with the disease has risen to 138. Of these patients, 78 are in intensive care. Currently, there are 5,357 active cases of the disease in the province, an increase of more than 300 people since Monday, when health officials announced more than 1,700 new cases within 72 hours.

Pic by Amir Arabshahi on Unsplash