TORONTO – Record numbers for Covid-19 in Canada: both Ontario and Quebec today recorded the highest number of cases in a single day since the start of the pandemic: 5,790 for Ontario and 9,397 for Quebec.  

Starting from Ontario, today’s count represents a jump of more than 1,400 cases in the space of twenty-four hours (4,383 infections detected on Wednesday) and exceeds by almost a thousand the highest daily number of infections previously reported, namely that of last April 16 when the cases were 4,812.

The escalation in the last few days is impressive: Saturday 3,301 new cases, Sunday 4,177, Monday 3,783, Tuesday 3,453 and Wednesday 4,383. Now, the seven-day moving average of daily cases has risen to 4,001: last week it was at 1,674. With 68,191 tests processed in the past 24 hours, the province’s positivity rate is now at 16%, the highest ever.

Of the new infections reported today, 1,398 involve people who are not vaccinated, partially vaccinated or whose vaccination status is unknown, while the remaining 4,392 involve fully vaccinated people. This is because, according to experts, the number of cases in fully vaccinated individuals can only increase as more and more people receive the vaccine: it is an ever wider audience.

The situation is reversed in hospitals: there are currently 440 people hospitalized for Covid-19 and, of these patients 304 are not fully vaccinated or have an unknown vaccination status and 136 are fully vaccinated. Furthermore, 169 of these patients are in intensive care: 137 are not fully vaccinated or have an unknown vaccination status and only 32 are fully vaccinated.

Data that seem to say: the new Omicron variant, now predominant, is more contagious and can attack everyone, even the vaccinated, but for the latter it has less serious consequences.

Regarding the territorial distribution of today’s cases in the Greater Toronto Area, health officials reported 1,527 new infections in Toronto, 491 in the Peel region, 470 in the York region, 334 in the Durham region and 259 in the Halton region. . And then: 486 in Ottawa, 277 in Hamilton, 253 in Middlesex-London, 213 in Simcoe-Muskoka, 125 in the Waterloo region, 115 in the Niagara region, 122 in Wellington -Dufferin Guelph Area and 103 in Windsor-Essex. All other regions reported fewer than 100 new cases.

The epidemiological report of the province on the age of the infected is interesting: of the 5,790 new infections reported today, 637 cases were identified in children under the age of 12, 560 in young people between the ages of 12 and 19, 2,662 in people aged between 20 and 39 years, 1,397 in people aged 40 to 59, 464 in people aged 60 to 79 and 69 cases in people over 80 years of age.

In addition, Ontario recorded another 7 deaths today bringing the total deaths in the province since the start of the pandemic to 10,140. The active and known cases in Ontario are now 32,412.

Quebec, we said at the beginning, also reported the highest single-day increase in Covid-19 cases, with an explosion of more than 9,000 infections reported today. The new cases are in fact 9,397 (out of 54,520 tests carried out) against 6,361 on Wednesday.

Hospital admissions are also growing again with an increase of 28 new patients compared to Wednesday. The number of people in intensive care also increased, by 3, for a total of 91 hospitalized in the ICU.

6 deaths were also recorded today, bringing the total in Quebec, from the beginning of the pandemic, to 11,658.

The active and known cases in the province are now 41,807, that is 7,646 more in just 24 hours.

Across Canada, the active and known cases of Covid-19 are 96,344 while the deaths, since the beginning of the pandemic, have been 30,126.

Photo by Önder Örtel on Unsplash