Ontario reports 1,829 new COVID-19 cases and 11 more deaths; highest case count since Feb. 1

Provincial health officials are reporting more than 1,800 new COVID-19 cases on Saturday, the highest single-day case count recorded in over a month.

Ontario logged 1,829 new infections and 11 additional deaths, continuing a steady rise in daily case counts as the province officially entered the third wave of the novel coronavirus pandemic this week.

The province logged 1,745 new cases on Friday, 1,553 on Thursday and 1,508 on Wednesday.

Saturday’s case count is the highest recorded since 1,969 cases were reported on Feb. 1.

The seven-day average of new cases in the province now stands at 1,532, compared to 1,337 a week ago.

Of the latest fatalities, one was a long-term care home resident. To date, there have been 7,223 virus-related deaths in the province since the pandemic began over a year ago.

Health officials are also reporting an additional 55 lab-confirmed cases of the B.1.1.7 variant of concern in Ontario.

Another 907 cases have screened positive for a variant but are awaiting whole genome sequencing to determine their lineage.

To date, there have been 1,312 lab-confirmed cases of highly-contagious variants reported in Ontario and more than 11,900 cases are awaiting further testing to identify what variant they are.

The Ministry of Health says another 1,261 people recovered from the disease across the province today, resulting in 13,810 active cases of the virus.

Ontario labs processed nearly 52,100 tests yesterday, down from 56,134 the previous day.

There are more than 28,000 tests under investigation.

Within the Greater Toronto Area, Toronto reported 593 new cases, up from 478 cases on Friday. Meanwhile, Peel logged 287 cases, down from 344 a day ago, and York reported 157 cases, down 17 from yesterday.

Elsewhere in the GTA, Halton Region recorded 40 new cases and Durham logged 77 new infections.

Of Ontario’s 34 public health units, 13 reported 30 or more new infections on Saturday.

There are currently 765 people hospitalized due to COVID-19 infection, a slight increase from 759 a day ago, according to the Ministry of Health.

Of those hospitalized, 302 are in intensive care units and 189 are breathing with the assistance of ventilators.

To date, there have been more than 327,000 lab-confirmed cases of the novel coronavirus and 306,050 recoveries across Ontario since the first case emerged in Jan. 2020.

More than 297,100 people across the province have been fully vaccinated since mid-December 2020.

As of Friday evening, more than 1.4 million doses have been administered across the province, with 60,283 shots given yesterday alone.

The latest numbers come as outdoor dining was permitted to resume in Toronto and Peel Region as of 12:01 a.m. on Saturday, as part of modifications to the grey lockdown zone announced by the government Friday afternoon.

The change allows for restaurants and bars to serve people from the same household outdoors, with proper distancing and other health safety measures. But indoor dining is still not allowed in grey-lockdown zones.

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.