TORONTO – New surge in Covid-19 cases in Ontario. After an average week start, provincial health officials today recorded the highest number of new infections in one day since early October. The laboratories have in fact confirmed 642 infections, the highest number since 9 October when 654 were registered. 

The seven-day moving average for cases in Ontario stands at 532 (it was 383 a week ago). With 29,814 tests processed in the past 24 hours, Ontario’s positivity rate is now 2.1%. Of the 642 cases reported today, 334 involved unvaccinated individuals, 18 partially vaccinated, 245 fully vaccinated and 45 patients whose vaccination status is unknown.

There are 168 patients in Ontario hospitals, including 89 unvaccinated, 15 partially vaccinated and 64 fully vaccinated. ICU admissions across the province include 62 unvaccinated, 4 partially vaccinated and 18 fully vaccinated patients.

Thursday’s report brings the total number of laboratory-confirmed cases in Ontario – since the start of the pandemic – to 605,248, including 591,063 recovered and 9,916 deaths, 4 of which were reported today.

Most of the cases reported today were identified in Toronto (74), the York region (62) and the Peel region (61). Other areas that have reported relatively high numbers of cases include Windsor-Essex (48), Ottawa (39), Sudbury (29), Waterloo (26) and Kingston (25).

In the past 24 hours, 81 cases have been found in Ontario schools. 72 of these cases involve students, while 8 involve staff members (the remaining case has not been identified). Of the 4,844 schools in the province, 501 have at least one confirmed case and two are closed.

Health Minister Christine Elliott said a total of 22,668,228 doses of Covid-19 vaccine were administered during the province’s vaccination campaign: 88.6% of the eligible population (i.e. over 12 years of age) of Ontario received an injection and 85.3% received two doses and are considered fully vaccinated.

Quite similar situation in Quebec, where today there were 4 deaths and 663 new cases, up from previous days as well as the daily active case count in the province, now at 5,543.

On the other hand, hospitalizations for viruses and cases in intensive care are slightly down: today 13 people hospitalized and 18 discharged. 2 people were admitted to intensive care units and 5 were discharged.

Vaccinations continue to rise, with 14,601 doses administered today. Now 91% of the population has received one dose of vaccines and 88.3% have received two.

Image par Dimitris Vetsikas de Pixabay