TORONTO – The cases of Ontario and Quebec registered today were enough to make Canada pass the threshold of one and a half million infections from Covid-19 since the beginning of the pandemic: 1,500,520, today, at noon. In fact, both provinces have registered over 600 cases. Let’s see in detail.

Ontario provincial health officials reported 656 new coronavirus infections today, up from 525 on Tuesday and 660 a week ago. Of the latest cases, 397 are among unvaccinated individuals, 52 partially vaccinated, 152 fully vaccinated and 55 have an unknown vaccination status. Unvaccinated and partially vaccinated people make up 68% of cases, but they represent only 33% of Ontario’s population.

As for the territorial distribution of the infections, Toronto recorded 158 cases today, while 59 new ones were reported in the Peel region, 76 in the York region, 31 in Durham and 29 in Halton. Elsewhere in southern Ontario, 73 new cases were recorded in Hamilton, 50 in Windsor-Essex and 30 in Middlesex-London.

The seven-day moving average is now 701, relatively unchanged from a day ago, but up from a week ago when it was 625. Ontario labs processed 27,572 tests in the past 24 hours, a significant leap from the previous day’s 19,643 tests. The province’s positivity rate is now 2.9%, down from 3.1% on Tuesday and 2.4% a week ago.

No deaths today, although thirteen have been added to the sad “count” of the dead: five occurred in the last week and the remaining eight occurred more than a week ago. On the other hand, 650 people recovered from the disease yesterday: 5,861 cases remain active throughout the province.

However, hospitalizations continue to increase: 339 patients are currently being treated in hospitals throughout the province and of these patients 163 are in intensive care units and 96 are breathing with the help of a ventilator. Among the ICU patients, 151 are not fully vaccinated or have unknown vaccination status and 12 are fully vaccinated.

From the vaccine front, 83% of Ontarians aged 12 and over have so far received at least one dose and 76% have received two and are fully vaccinated.

The total case count in Ontario reached 566,206. The health crisis has so far killed 9,516 people.

Quebec reported 690 new cases and two further related deaths today. Health officials say the number of hospitalizations increased by 7 to 138. This includes 40 ICU patients, an increase of four from the previous day.

The province has distributed an additional 26,680 doses of the coronavirus vaccine: in the course of the vaccination campaign, more than 12.3 million vaccines have been administered in total so far. Health officials say just over 87 percent of Quebecers 12 years of age and older have received a dose of the vaccine, and 80.8 percent are considered fully vaccinated. As for screening, the latest available data show that 20,854 tests were administered in the province on Monday.

The total case count in Quebec reached 389,914. The health crisis has so far killed 11,288 people.

The total of Canadian victims of Covid-19 is 26,947.

Photo by Mufid Majnun on Unsplash