Ontario reported 944 new COVID-19 cases and nine deaths on Saturday, the province’s highest daily case count in more than three months, and the highest count of new cases in unvaccinated people since the province began keeping track.
Ontario last saw case numbers this high on May 30, when 1,033 cases were reported.
The province reported 805 new cases on Friday and 865 on Thursday.
The seven-day rolling average of new cases now stands at 747, up from 732 yesterday.
Of the new cases, 651 were in unvaccinated people or those with only one dose of a vaccine, while 208 were in fully vaccinated people.
Another 85 cases involved people with unknown vaccination status.
Infections in partially vaccinated or unvaccinated people made up 69 per cent of Saturday’s cases despite making up only 33 per cent of the population.
Provincial labs processed 26,259 test specimens, generating a positivity rate once inconclusive and duplicate tests are accounted for of 3.5 per cent.
Across the GTA, Toronto reported 181 new cases, Peel reported 118 new cases, York Region reported 112 and Durham reported 28 new cases.
Hamilton reported 92 new cases and Halton reported 28 new cases.
A spokesperson for Health Minister Christine Elliott said five of the nine deaths reported today occurred “more than two months ago,” and were reported today as part of an ongoing investigation into pandemic mortality in the province.
One of the nine deaths involved a resident of the long-term care system.
There have now been 9,545 deaths due to COVID-19 across Ontario since March 2020.
The Ministry of Health says 309 people are in hospital, with 172 people in intensive care, up three patients from Friday.
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.
