TORONTO – Ontario: 495 new infections today, slightly up from 466 on Tuesday and 463 a week ago. But still below 500, according to a reassuring trend that seems to be confirmed day after day. There were 613 new cases on Monday, 653 on Sunday and 640 on Saturday. The seven-day moving average is now 610, up from 692 a week ago. Today’s infections were detected on a total of about 36,400 tests in the last 24 hours, with a positivity rate of 1.7%, relatively unchanged compared to a week ago. 

What emerges, as now every day for a couple of weeks, is that what makes the difference is the vaccine: of the latest cases, 302 of the infected individuals are not vaccinated, 36 are partially vaccinated, 115 are fully vaccinated and 42 have a state unknown vaccination. And it is no coincidence that the virus is affecting above all children under 12 who still cannot get vaccinated: of the cases of today, 84 are children between 0 and 11 years, 40 are individuals between 12 and 19 years, 191 are between 20 and 39 years, 133 are between 40 and 59, 44 are between 60 and 79 and four are 80 and more. The province also reported 170 school-related coronavirus cases today.

As for the territorial distribution of cases, in the Greater Toronto Area, Toronto recorded 107 cases, while 33 were reported in the Peel region, 35 in the York region, 20 in Halton and 10 in Durham. 39 new cases reported in both Ottawa and Hamilton and 33 in Windsor-Essex. Eight deaths today (11 on Tuesday): the total death toll in Ontario linked to the virus since March 2020 is now 9,723. Another 760 people have recovered from the disease in the last 24 hours: there are still 4,989 active cases throughout the province, of which 292 are hospitalized in Ontario hospitals and 172 are in intensive care units. Of those in ICU, 164 are either not fully vaccinated or have unknown vaccination status while 8 are fully vaccinated.

About 30% of Ontarians are not vaccinated, including children under 12 who, we said, are not yet eligible. So far, 86 percent of Ontarians over the age of 12 have received at least one dose of the vaccine and 80 percent have received two.

Quebec today reported 7 new deaths (for a total of 11,369) and 594 new cases (up from 469 – and 6 deaths – on Tuesday). A total of 32,794 samples analyzed.

Admissions in the hospitals fell by 15, bringing the number of people in Quebec hospitals to 306, or 30 admissions and 45 discharges. Of these 306, 91 are in intensive care; down from three to 8 new patients while 11 were discharged.

Of the new cases, 408 involve people who were not vaccinated or partially vaccinated with a dose received less than two weeks ago; 24, people who received a dose more than two weeks ago; 162, people who received two doses of the vaccine more than seven days ago.

Of the new hospitalizations, on the other hand, 22 cases are unvaccinated or partially vaccinated people who received a dose less than two weeks ago; 8, people who received two doses over a week ago.

In the past few hours, Quebec health workers have administered 10,746 more vaccinations in the province; 10,115 doses in the last 24 hours and 631 doses before September 28th for a total of 12,878,570 doses administered in the province. Outside of Quebec, 184,828 doses were administered for a cumulative total of 13,063,398, or 78.2 percent of the population. As of September 28, a total of 6,677,155 Québecers, or 89 percent of the eligible population aged 12 years and older, had received the first dose of the vaccine and 6,291,059 people, or 84% of the population eligible aged 12 and over, have received two.

Photo by Mat Napo on Unsplash