Ontario reported more than 1,000 new COVID-19 cases and eight more virus-related deaths on Wednesday as the seven-day rolling average of new infections hit a high not seen in over six months.
Provincial health officials logged 1,009 new coronavirus infections today, up from 928 yesterday and from 780 a week ago.
The province reported 1,053 new cases on Saturday, 1,184 on Sunday and 887 on Monday.
The rise in daily case counts over the past month has caused the seven-day rolling average to climb to 1,007 today, marking the highest daily average recorded since June 1 when it was 1,030.
Among the latest cases, 421 people are unvaccinated, 22 are partially vaccinated, 502 are fully vaccinated and 64 have an unknown vaccination status.
Partially vaccinated individuals could include those who have received two doses but are not yet 14 days past the second dose to be considered fully vaccinated.
To date, over 85 per cent of Ontarians aged five and older have received at least one dose of a COVID-19 vaccine and more than 80 per cent have received two doses and are considered fully vaccinated.
Health Canada approved Pfizer’s vaccine for children aged five to 11 last month.
The province reported 252 new cases at publicly-funded schools across Ontario today, up from 164 a week ago, and 10 schools are closed due to outbreaks.
The Ministry of Health says all of the latest deaths occurred in the past month.
The province’s virus-related death toll hit 10,044 on Wednesday.
Another 1,129 people recovered from the virus yesterday, resulting in 8,351 active cases across the province.
Ontario labs processed 38,502 tests in the past 24 hours, producing a positivity rate of 3.3 per cent, compared to 3.1 per cent a week ago, according to the ministry.
In the Greater Toronto Area, Toronto logged 124 new cases, while 50 were reported in York Region, 48 in Peel, 34 in Durham and 42 in Halton.
Elsewhere in the province, 92 new cases were reported in Ottawa, 82 in Simcoe Muskoka and 75 in Windsor-Essex.
There are currently 333 people with the virus in hospitals across the province and 155 of those patients are in intensive care units.
Health Minister Christine Elliott said 131 people are not fully vaccinated or have an unknown vaccination status and 24 are fully vaccinated.
Yesterday, Ontario’s COVID-19 Science Advisory Table released new modelling data that suggests case counts will jump to about 1,750 a day in early 2022 in the “most likely” scenario. But the scientists warn that the newly detected Omicront variant will likely cause their estimates to be higher.
The table also said that the number of people in ICU with the virus is expected to rise to between 250 and 400 by January, putting more strain on hospitals and overwhelming the health-care system. This projection also does not account for the Omicron variant.
Infectious diseases specialist at Toronto General Hospital Dr. Isaac Bogoch said the province could run into ICU capacity issues by later this month or in early January.
“Right now in Ontario we have just over 160 patients in ICUs across the province with COVID-19 related illness, but, you know, capacity starts becoming an issue at around the 300 to 400 person mark, and, you know, we're headed in that direction. You always want to avoid situations where the ICU is being stretched, that's really the big bottleneck,” he told CP24 on Wednesday.
To date, there have been over 626,300 lab-confirmed coronavirus infections and 607,926 recoveries in Ontario since Jan. 2020.
The numbers used in this story are found in the Ontario Ministry of Health's COVID-19 Daily Epidemiologic Summary. The number of cases for any city or region may differ slightly from what is reported by the province, because local units report figures at different times.
