Ontario reported more than 400 new COVID-19 cases and no additional deaths today as the seven-day rolling average continued to drop.
Provincial health officials logged 419 new infections on Friday, up from 409 yesterday but down from 492 a week ago.
Earlier this week, Ontario reported 326 cases on Monday, 269 on Tuesday and 321 on Wednesday.
Among the latest cases, 231 individuals are unvaccinated, 24 are partially vaccinated, 140 are fully vaccinated and 24 have an unknown vaccination status.
Fully vaccinated individuals account for 35 per cent of today’s cases.
On Friday, the National Advisory Committee on Immunization (NACI) announced more groups who should be eligible for COVID-19 booster shots, including those who had two doses of AstraZeneca and people over 70.
After NACI updated its guidance, Health Minister Christine Elliott tweeted that the province will release its plan next week on when third doses will be distributed.
Infectious diseases specialist Dr. Isaac Bogoch says third doses should be rolling out to reduce the risk of breakthrough infections.
“We know that, sadly, breakthrough infections, infections including breakthrough infections, can actually be severe and there are risk factors for severe COVID-19 infection, including people on the older end of the spectrum and people who have underlying medical conditions,” Bogoch told CP24 on Friday
“Now we have to do everything we can to prevent people from getting COVID-19 and of course that means rolling out third doses,” he added.
So far, 88 per cent of eligible Ontarians have received one dose of a COVID-19 vaccine and 84 per cent have received two doses and are considered fully vaccinated.
Children under 12 years old are not yet eligible for a vaccine.
The seven-day rolling average continued to drop today hitting 355, down from 406 a week ago.
Another 399 people recovered from the virus in the past 24 hours, resulting in 3,038 active cases across the province.
The province’s virus related death toll remains unchanged at 9,865.
Ontario labs processed nearly 29,600 tests yesterday, producing a positivity rate of 1.3 per cent, unchanged from a day ago, according to the Ministry of Health.
In the Greater Toronto Area, 63 new cases were logged in Toronto, 32 in Peel Region, 30 in York and six in both Durham and Halton.
Meanwhile, Ottawa logged 30 cases, 34 in Windsor-Essex, 26 in Simcoe Muskoka, 25 in Waterloo and 23 in Hamilton.
The ministry says there are 211 people with the virus in hospitals across the province and 130 in intensive care units.
Of those in ICUs, 89 are breathing with the help of a ventilator.
Health Minister Christine Elliott says 116 ICU patients are not fully vaccinated or have an unknown vaccination status and 14 are fully vaccinated.
To date, there have been over 599,200 lab-confirmed cases of the coronavirus and 586,356 recoveries 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.
