Ontario reports 2,578 new coronavirus cases, 24 more deaths

Ontario is reporting 2,578 new cases of the coronavirus on Monday, bringing the provincial total to 240,364.

Monday’s case count is a significant dip from Sunday’s which saw 3,422 new infections. On Saturday, 3,056 new cases were recorded and 2,998 on Friday.

It is also the lowest number of new cases reported within 24 hours since Jan. 1 when 2,476 new cases were recorded.

“Locally, there are 815 new cases in Toronto, 507 in Peel, 151 in York Region, 151 in Niagara and 121 in Hamilton,” Health Minister Christine Elliott said.

The death toll in the province has risen to 5,433 after 24 more deaths were reported.

The province also now has a total of 15 known cases of the more contagious U.K. coronavirus variant, with the most recent case involving a person in London, Ont., with no travel history outside of Canada, Ontario associate chief medical officer of health Dr. Barbara Yaffe said.

“We do expect more cases to be identified in the weeks to follow as there is evidence now of community transmission,” Yaffe said.

Meanwhile, 206,310 Ontarians have recovered from COVID-19 which is about 86 per cent of known cases. Resolved cases increased by 2,826 from the previous day.

There were more resolved cases than new cases on Monday.

Active cases in Ontario now stand at 28,621 — down from the previous day when it was 28,893, and down from last Monday at 30,632.

The seven-day average has now reached 3,035, down from yesterday at 3,143 and down from last week at 3,555.

Ontario reported 1,571 people hospitalized with COVID-19 (down by one from the previous day), with 394 patients in an intensive care unit (down by one) and 303 patients in ICUs on a ventilator (up by 10).

The government said 40,301 tests were processed in the last 24 hours. There is currently a backlog of 18,481 tests awaiting results. A total of 8,965,747 tests have been completed since the start of the pandemic.

Test positivity — the percentage of tests that come back positive — for Monday was 6.6 per cent, up from Sunday at 5.2 per cent, but down from one week ago when it was 7.7 per cent.

As of 10 a.m. Monday, the province has administered 211,399 COVID-19 vaccine doses.

Here is a breakdown of the total cases in Ontario by gender and age:

• 117,374 people are male — an increase of 1,218 cases.
• 121,609 people are female — an increase of 1,334 cases.
• 31,442 people are 19 and under — an increase of 336 cases.
• 87,938 people are 20 to 39 — an increase of 972 cases.
• 69,216 people are 40 to 59 — an increase of 743 cases.
• 34,581 people are 60 to 79 — an increase of 349 cases.
• 17,133 people are 80 and over — an increase of 174 cases.
• The province notes that not all cases have a reported age or gender.

The province notes that the number of cases publicly reported each day may not align with case counts reported by the local public health unit on a given day. Local public health units report when they were first notified of a case, which can be updated and changed as information becomes available. Data may also be pulled at different times.

Here is a breakdown of the total deaths related to COVID-19 by age:

• Deaths reported in ages 19 and under: 1
• Deaths reported in ages 20 to 39: 20
• Deaths reported in ages 40 to 59: 207
• Deaths reported in ages 60 to 79: 1,446
• Deaths reported in ages 80 and older: 3,758
• The province notes there may be a reporting delay for deaths.

Ontario long-term care homes

According to the Ministry of Long-Term Care, there have been 3,150 deaths reported among residents and patients in long-term care homes across Ontario which is an increase of 27 deaths. Ten virus-related deaths in total have been reported among staff.

The discrepancy between the increase for the daily death toll reported by the province and the increase in long-term care home deaths reported by the ministry can be due to a delay in uploading it into the system.

There are 248 current outbreaks in homes, an increase of two from the previous day.

The ministry also indicated there are currently 1,615 active cases among long-term care residents and 1,272 active cases among staff — down by seven cases and down by 41 cases, respectively, in the last day.

— With files from Ryan Rocca