Ontario is reporting 600 new COVID-19 cases today as students across Ontario begin their first full week back in the classroom.
After several days of week-over-week declines in the daily case count, Ontario’s tally today was up slightly from 581 last Monday, although Ontario’s test positivity rate is lower today compared to last Monday.
With 19,125 tests processed yesterday, Ontario is reporting a provincewide positivity rate of 3.1, down from 3.6 per cent one week ago.
The rolling seven-day average of new cases now stands at 715, up slightly from 712 on Sunday but down from 741 last Monday.
Ontario's active COVID-19 caseload is now 6,216, down from 6,399 one week ago.
Of the 600 new cases, 475 cases, or 79 per cent, are in individuals who are not fully vaccinated or have an unknown vaccination status and 125, or 21 per cent, are in those who are fully immunized.
About 84 per cent of Ontarians 12 and older have received at least one dose of a COVID-19 vaccine and more than 78 per cent are fully vaccinated.
In Toronto, 114 new cases were confirmed today, along with 84 in Peel Region, 67 in York Region, 59 in Ottawa, and 47 in Windsor.
So far, Toronto Public Health has confirmed COVID-19 cases in at least three schools, all located in the city's east end.
Case counts shared on the websites of local school boards indicate that there are at least 74 COVID-19 infections confirmed among staff and students at GTHA schools.
Ontario’s chief medical officer of health and other experts have cautioned that cases will likely rise this fall with students back in school and more people gathering indoors, however, many believe the burden on the health-care system will be less severe during the fourth wave compared to other waves of the pandemic thanks to solid vaccination rates in the province.
According to the Ministry of Health, there are currently 189 COVID-19 patients in Ontario intensive care units, up marginally from 187 last Monday.
The province does not release data early in the week about the distribution of ICU patients who are fully vaccinated and those who are not, but on Saturday, Ontario Health Minister Christine Elliott confirmed that of all the COVID-19 patients in the ICU that day, 165 were not fully vaccinated or had an unknown vaccination status and only 15 were fully immunized.
Dr. Isaac Bogoch, an infectious diseases specialist with the University Health Network, told CP24 on Monday that over the past month he has only seen unvaccinated individuals in intensive care due to COVID-19.
"Every single patient I’ve seen with COVID in the hospital has been unvaccinated. Every single one. And some of them are very, very sick. Not all of them are old or have co-morbidities,” he said.
“There is overwhelming data from multiple countries, from multiple sources in multiple countries, all pointing in the same direction. These vaccines will reduce your risk of getting the infection but the heavy lifting is really done in keeping you out of hospital, keeping you out of the ICU, and preventing you from dying.”
Another six virus-related deaths were confirmed in the province today but the province says two of those fatalities occurred more than a month ago. Over the past seven days, 67 deaths have been added to the province’s overall death toll, although some of those deaths did not occur within the past 30 days.
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.
