Ontario reports 256 new COVID-19 cases as province hits new record of 246K vaccinations in a day

Ontario is reporting 256 new COVID-19 cases on Friday, as the province crushes another single-day record for most vaccinations. The provincial case total now stands at 543,571.

Friday’s case count is the fifth straight day it’s below 300. On Thursday, there were 296 new cases with 255 on Wednesday.

According to Friday’s report, 39 new cases were recorded in Waterloo, 38 in Peel Region, 36 in Toronto, 17 in Hamilton and 18 in Grey Bruce. Waterloo once again surpasses Toronto and Peel for the most cases within the count for the second day in a row.

All other local public health units reported fewer than 15 new cases in the provincial report.

The death toll in the province has risen to 9,101 as two more deaths were recorded.

As of 8 p.m. on Thursday, more than 13.5 million total COVID-19 vaccine doses were administered. That marked a new record increase of 246,393 vaccines (27,611 for a first shot and 218,782 for a second shot) in the last day.

There are more than 3.7 million people fully immunized with two doses which is 30.9 per cent of the adult population. First dose adult coverage sits at 76.9 per cent.

Meanwhile, 531,571 Ontario residents were reported to have recovered from COVID-19, which is about 98 per cent of known cases. Resolved cases increased by 293 from the previous day.

There were more resolved cases than new cases on Friday.

Active cases in Ontario now stand at 2,899 — down from the previous day when it was at 2,938, and is down from June 18 when it was at 4,110. At the peak of the second wave coronavirus surge in January, active cases hit just above 30,000. In the third wave in April, active cases topped 43,000.

The seven-day average has now reached 307, which is slightly up from yesterday at 305, but is down from last week at 411. A month ago, the seven-day average was around 1,600.

The government said 26,561 tests were processed in the last 24 hours. There is currently a backlog of 11,063 tests awaiting results. A total of 15,836,497 tests have been completed since the start of the pandemic.

Test positivity for Friday hit 1.3 per cent, a slight increase from Thursday’s when it was 1.1 per cent. Last week, test positivity was 1.3 per cent.

Ontario reported 275 people are hospitalized with COVID-19 (down by nine from the previous day) with 284 patients in intensive care units (down by 16) and 202 patients in ICUs on a ventilator (up by 13). Hospitalizations have been on the decline since the third wave peak in April.

More to come.

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