Ontario is reporting more than 600 new COVID-19 cases for a second day in a row as the seven-day average continues to rise.
Provincial health officials logged 678 new coronavirus infections today, up from 660 on Wednesday and from 531 this time last week.
Of those cases, 537 are not fully vaccinated or have an unknown vaccination status and 141 are fully vaccinated.
The province reported 486 new cases on Tuesday, 639 on Monday and 722 on Sunday.
The seven-day rolling average now stands at 646, compared to 498 a week ago.
No new deaths were reported in the past 24 hours, leaving the death toll at 9,472.
Another 513 people recovered from the virus yesterday, resulting in 5,305 active cases across the province.
Ontario labs processed more than 27,800 tests on Wednesday, resulting in a positivity rate of 2.8 per cent, up from 2.4 per cent a week ago, according to the Ministry of Health.
In the Greater Toronto Area, Toronto logged 144 new cases, while 102 were reported in Peel Region, 97 in York Region, 51 in Durham and nine in Halton.
Elsewhere in Southern Ontario, 78 new infections were reported in Windsor-Essex and 48 in Hamilton.
COVID-19 hospitalizations continue to increase steadily as 302 patients are currently receiving treatment at Ontario hospitals, up from 176 seven days ago, the ministry says.
Of those patients, 165 are receiving treatment in intensive care units (ICU), up from 131 a week ago, and 155 of these patients are not fully vaccinated or have an unknown vaccination status and 10 are fully vaccinated.
To date, there have been over 561,900 lab-confirmed coronavirus cases and 547,198 recoveries since Jan. 2020.
Currently, 82.5 per cent of Ontarians 12 years and older have at least one dose of a COVID-19 vaccine and 75.5 per cent have received two doses and are fully vaccinated.
As cases continue to increase, Infectious diseases specialist Dr. Isaac Bogoch said the fourth wave of the pandemic is expected to last throughout the winter.
“I mean I think it's fair to say that there will be a rise in cases as we're seeing now, those cases will continue to climb if other measures aren't taken to control this virus and they might be sustained at a higher level,” Bogoch told CP24 on Thursday.
“So you might not have these massive spikes, although we are starting to see a rise, spike, but we might see some ebbs and flows throughout the winter,” he added.
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.
