TORONTO –  Ten thousand dead. With the three deaths today, Ontario has crossed the sad milestone: since March 2020, ten thousand people died in the province of or with Covid-19, despite the sharp decline in the number of deaths in the last six months, recorded thanks to the widespread use of vaccines. 

The first victim of Covid-19 in Ontario was, on March 2020, a 70-year-old man who had returned to the province after a trip to the UK. A few weeks later, the Province released the first projections on the possible “effects” of the pandemic, assuming that over two years, Ontario would see between 3,000 and 15,000 deaths from the new coronavirus. Unfortunately, the worst case scenario has prevailed: we are at 10,000 deaths and two years have not yet passed since March 2020.

As mentioned, Ontario saw fewer deaths during the fourth wave of the pandemic than in previous waves thanks to high vaccination rates. In the past month, Ontario has in fact reported only 126 additional deaths related to the virus, up from 511 deaths in November 2020. Since July 1, when virtually all adults were given the green light to receive their second dose of vaccine against Covid-19, “only” 813 deaths were added to the overall total of the province, which amount on average to about 5 new deaths per day, while at the peak of the second wave, between January 1 and 1 February this year, 1,643 deaths have been confirmed, nearly double the number reported in the past five months.

Meanwhile, 687 new cases were recorded today, down from 788 on Monday but up from 613 a week ago. With 21,476 tests processed in the last 24 hours, the provincial-level positivity rate is 3%, almost on par with last week’s 3.1%. The moving average of new cases per day over seven days has instead risen to 794 (last Tuesday it was 675).

The public health units with the highest number of new cases include Toronto (94), Windsor (71), Peel Region (60), Simcoe-Muskoka (57), Halton Region (47), and Algoma (35).

Of today’s infections, 310 involved unvaccinated people, 19 partially vaccinated people, 308 fully immunized people and 50 people with unknown vaccination status.

There are currently 153 ICU patients, up from 134 a week ago.

The number of active and known cases in Ontario now stands at 6,940, up from 5,487 last week.

Photo by Ehimetalor Akhere Unuabona on Unsplash