Ontario reported 2,421 new cases of COVID-19 on Thursday, the most on a single day in seven months and an 88 per cent increase over the same time last week.
The updated figures come ahead of an expected briefing from the co-chair of Ontario’s COVID-19 Science Advisory Table on the group’s latest modelling.
Adalsteinn Brown is scheduled to hold a briefing at 11 a.m. ET in Toronto. You’ll be able to watch it live in this story.
Today’s additional cases push the seven-day average to 1,676, a 59 per cent jump from last Thursday.
The science table’s most recent estimate has the number of new Omicron-linked cases in Ontario on pace to double every 2.2 days.
On Wednesday, the provincial government announced a series of new measures in response to the highly infectious variant.
Among them is an accelerated rollout of COVID-19 booster shots, which will be available starting Monday to residents over 18 whose second dose was at least three months ago.
Public health units collectively administered another 119,286 boosters yesterday. A total of 1,441,100 Ontarians have now had a third dose.
The province also said it will cut capacity to 50 per cent at certain large venues, including sporting arenas and cinemas, starting Saturday.
Up to two million rapid tests will be available for free at pop-up testing sites in high-traffic settings including malls, retail settings, holiday markets, public libraries and transit hubs over the holidays, as well as at select LCBO locations.
You can find a list here of pop-up sites confirmed so far. Each person is limited to one pack that contains five tests.
Premier Doug Ford said Wednesday it appears Omicron may already have overtaken the Delta variant as the dominant strain in Ontario.
Omicron is infecting between four and eight times more people than Delta, according to Dr. Kieran Moore, Ontario’s chief medical officer of health.
Public Health Ontario reported a seven per cent positivity rate from 54,724 tests on Thursday. That’s the highest level since May 18, when a rate of 7.6 per cent was reported on just 22,915 total tests.
While cases and positivity rates are spiking in much of the province, the number of COVID patients in hospitals and intensive care has continued to hold relatively steady, though there are signs that the burden is slowly increasing.
As of yesterday evening, there were 328 people with COVID in hospital, up from 309 at the same time last week. Similarly, there were 165 patients being treated for COVID-related illnesses in ICUs, up from 155 last Thursday.
More to come.
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