Ontario’s daily COVID-19 case count continues to move upward to levels not seen in more than two months, with officials reporting 722 cases on Sunday and two additional deaths.
The seven-day rolling average of new cases now stands at 564, up from 534 yesterday.
Ontario reported 689 new COVID-19 cases on Saturday and 650 on Friday.
The last time the province reported a daily COVID-19 case count this high was on June 5 when 774 cases were detected.
Provincial labs processed 23,075 specimens, generating a positivity rate of at least 3.2 per cent, the highest it has been since June 7.
Health Minister Christine Elliott said 522 or 78 per cent of Sunday’s cases involved people who were unvaccinated, partially vaccinated or had unknown vaccination status.
She said 158 or 22 per cent of Sunday’s case count involved fully vaccinated individuals.
Ontario’s COVID-19 Science Advisory Table says full vaccination against COVID-19 amounts to an 89 per cent reduction in relative risk of infection vs. not getting vaccinated, a 96.2 per cent relative reduction in risk of hospitalization and a 98 per cent relative reduction in risk of admission to intensive care.
Unvaccinated and partially vaccinated people account for only 34 per cent of Ontario’s population.
There are now 4,989 known active coronavirus cases across the province, with 9,453 confirmed deaths and 545,070 recoveries.
Across the GTA, Toronto reported 170 new COVID-19 cases, its highest daily count since June 8.
Peel Region reported 63 new cases, York Region reported 70 new cases and Durham Region reported 39 new cases.
Hamilton reported 101 new cases and Halton Region reported 22 new cases.
Intensive care unit occupancy due to COVID-19 rose to 141, up from 135 on Saturday, according to the Ministry of Health.
Trillium Health Partners infectious disease specialist Dr. Sumon Chakrabarti told CP24 his hospital is starting to see new admissions due to COVID-19 pick up, but nearly all are unvaccinated.
“We’re seeing a broad range of people – primarily unvaccinated – I have seen people who are healthy in their 20s and 30s, I have seen some people who are older with health problems like diabetes and high blood pressure, all of these things.”
He urged those still “on the fence” about vaccination to seek out medical advice and accept the jab.
“I know there are still people who are on the fence and I urge you to go talk to someone you trust, a healthcare provider and weigh your options.”
The Ministry also said 33,535 COVID-19 vaccine doses were administered on Saturday.
Of those, 10,724 were first doses and 22,811 were second shots.
Eighty-two per cent of eligible Ontario residents have received at least one dose of COVID-19 vaccine and 75 per cent have received two doses.
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.
