Ontario reports 1,072 new COVID-19 cases, 41 more deaths

Ontario is reporting more than 1,000 new cases of COVID-19 on Wednesday, continuing a downward trend of new infections across the province.

Provincial health officials logged 1,072 new cases today, up slightly from 1,022 new infections recorded yesterday.

Tuesday’s numbers marked one of the lowest daily case counts reported in the province in more than two months.

Ontario reported 1,265 new cases on Monday, 1,489 infections on Sunday and 1,388 on Saturday.

The seven-day rolling average of new cases now stands at 1,352, compared to 1,675 a week ago.

Provincial health officials also reported 41 more deaths due to the novel coronavirus, with 13 among long-term care home residents.

There are currently 208 long-term care homes and 109 retirement homes with an active outbreak of COVID-19.

Since the first case of the virus emerged over a year ago, 3,760 long-term care residents have died from the virus, representing 57 per cent of all virus-related deaths in the province.

To date, 6,596 people in Ontario have died after contracting the virus.

According to the province’s latest epidemiological summary, 1,709 more people recovered from the virus, resulting in 13,270 active cases across the province.

Most of the cases continue to be in hot spots in the Greater Toronto Area.

“Locally, there are 393 new cases in Toronto, 196 in Peel and 125 in York Region,” Ontario Health Minister Christine Elliott tweeted Wednesday morning.

Elsewhere in the GTA, Halton Region recorded 28 new cases, down from 42 on Tuesday, and Durham Region logged 21 infections, down by four from a day ago.

The province also reported one additional case of the COVID-19 variant first detected in the U.K., also known as B.1.1.7. Ontario has now identified a total of 228 lab-confirmed cases of the U.K. variant and three cases of the South African variant, also known as B.1.351.

Provincial health officials, however, have not included in their data the first known case of the Brazilian variant found in a Toronto resident, which was confirmed by Toronto Public Health on Sunday.

In the past 24-hour span, Ontario labs processed 52,504 tests, a notable increase from 30,798 on Tuesday.

More than 41,700 test specimens are still under investigation.

According to the Ministry of Health, the province’s positivity rate now stands at 2.5 per cent, down from 3.3 per cent a day ago.

Hospitalizations saw a slight uptick compared to a day ago.

There are 948 people hospitalized due to COVID-19 infection across the province, up from 909 on Tuesday and 901 on Monday, according to the Ministry of Health.

However, the province's number is notably lower than current data from individual hospitals and health units which says there are at least 1,137 people in hospitals across the province.

Of those hospitalized, 313 are in intensive care units and 226 are breathing with the assistance of a ventilator.

To date, there have been more than 281,500 lab-confirmed cases of COVID-19 and 261,700 recoveries in the province since Jan. 2020.

The latest numbers come as Ontario begins to gradually reopen its economy today.

As of 12:01 a.m., the province’s lockdown and stay-at-home orders have been lifted in three public health units, including Hastings Prince Edward; Kingston, Frontenac and Lennox and Addington; and Renfrew County.

The regions are moving into the green “prevent” category of the province’s colour-coded COVID-19 response framework, meaning that restaurants and non-essential business can reopen.

All remaining regions except three hot spots in the GTA are set to come out of lockdown and move into the province’s framework next Tuesday.

Toronto, Peel Region and York Region are expected to be the last regions to come out of lockdown on Feb. 22, but provincial officials have said an increase in COVID-19 cases could delay that transition.

More than 125,700 vaccinations complete

Daily doses of COVID-19 vaccines administered across the province appear to be increasing.

As of 8 p.m. on Tuesday, the province administered nearly 13,500 doses of either the approved Pfizer-BioNTech or Moderna vaccines in the past 24-hour span, up from an average of roughly 9,000 daily doses a week ago.

More than 412,100 doses of the vaccines have been administered across the province since mid-December. Two doses of a vaccine is needed a few weeks apart for full immunization.

As of Tuesday night, 125,725 people in Ontario have been fully vaccinated against the virus.

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.