Ontario reported its highest daily COVID-19 case count observed in seven months as the province prepares to issue more booster shots to Ontarians to combat the spread of the Omicron variant.
The province logged 2,421 new infections today, up significantly from 1,808 yesterday and the highest single-day case count since May 15 when 2,584 new cases were reported.
Earlier this week the province reported 1,476 new cases on Monday, 1,536 on Tuesday and 1,429 on Wednesday.
The Ministry of Health says that of the new cases, 1,530 are fully vaccinated, while 686 are unvaccinated, 72 are partially vaccinated and 133 have an unknown vaccination status.
Unvaccinated individuals, who make up roughly 23 per cent of Ontario’s total population, represent 28 per cent of all cases today.
Yesterday, the province administered a total of 137,803 COVID-19 vaccine doses across the province.
So far, over 85 per cent of Ontarians five years and older have received at least one dose of a COVID-19 vaccine and nearly 81 per cent have received two doses.
Ontario announced a plan to accelerate booster shots Wednesday. Over 1.4 million people in the province have received three doses of a COVID-19 vaccine so far.
Infectious diseases specialist Dr. Isaac Bogoch expects the government will ramp up vaccinations in the coming days.
“I would not be surprised if we reach, you know, over 200,000 vaccines administered per day in the very near future because you're watching the province mobilize an all hands on deck approach,” he told CP24 Thursday morning.
As cases continue to steadily rise, the seven-day rolling average climbed to 1,676 today, compared to 1,055 a week ago.
Over the past month, cases have been increasing in most public health units across the province with the emergence of the highly contagious Omicron variant.
Yesterday, the province’s COVID-19 Science Advisory Table said about 53 per cent of all COVID-19 cases in the province are caused by Omicron.
The table also said that the Omicron variant has a doubling time of 2.2, which means the virus is doubling in the province roughly every three days.
On Wednesday, the table’s scientific director Dr. Peter Jüni said the province could see over 10,000 new cases of COVID-19 by New Year’s Eve due to Omicron’s doubling time.
Omicron’s effective reproduction (Rt) number hit 4.55, meaning that every person with Omicron is infecting more than four other people.
Meanwhile, the Delta variant, which is set to be replaced by Omicron this month as the dominant strain in Ontario, has a Rt of 0.97.
The science table released new modelling data Thursday morning, a day after the province announced that it will be expanding booster shot eligibility on Monday to those 18 years and older who got their second dose at least 84 days ago.
The government also said capacity limits will be reduced at large indoor venues by 50 per cent as of Saturday.
Yesterday, another 1,013 people recovered from the virus, resulting in 14,065 active cases across the province.
The ministry reported nine more virus-related deaths today, all of which occurred in the last month. The province’s death toll now stands at 10,102.
Ontario labs processed more than 54,700 tests in the past 24 hours, producing a positivity rate of seven per cent, a notable rise from 3.5 per cent a week ago, the ministry says.
In the Greater Toronto Area, Toronto logged 505 new cases, while 153 were reported in Peel Region, 143 in York, 112 in Halton and 97 in Durham.
Elsewhere in Ontario, 206 new cases were reported in Ottawa, 190 in Kingston, Frontenac and Lennox & Addington Public Health and 115 in Niagara.
The ministry says there are 328 people in hospitals across the province with the virus and 165 of them are in intensive care units.
Health Minister Christine Elliott tweeted on Thursday that 141 of the ICU patients are not fully vaccinated or have an unknown vaccination status and 24 are fully vaccinated.
To date, there have been 639,341 lab-confirmed coronavirus cases and 615,174 recoveries across the province 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.
