Ontario reports 780 new COVID-19 cases, 5 more deaths | Globalnews.ca

Ontario is reporting 780 new COVID-19 cases on Wednesday, as the counts continue to rise week over week. The provincial case total now stands at 619,270.

For comparison, last Wednesday saw 591 new cases and the previous Wednesday saw 512. All three Wednesday’s saw similar testing volumes in the 30,000 range.

According to Wednesday’s report, 96 cases were recorded in Toronto, 88 in Windsor-Essex, 64 in Simcoe Muskoka, 56 in Sudbury, 44 in Ottawa and 43 in Waterloo. All other local public health units reported fewer than 40 new cases in the provincial report.

The death toll in the province has risen to 10,005 as five more deaths were reported.

Meanwhile, 602,515 Ontario residents were reported to have recovered from COVID-19, which is around 97 per cent of known cases. Resolved cases increased by 965 from the previous day.

Active cases in Ontario now stand at 6,750— down from the previous day when it was at 6,940, but up from Nov. 24 when it was at 5,407. 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 821, which is up from the week prior when it was 686. A month ago, the seven-day average was around 350.

The government said 35,364 tests were processed in the previous 24 hours. There are 16,736 tests currently under investigation.

Test positivity hit 3.1 per cent. Last week, test positivity was at 2.5 per cent.

Hospitalizations in Ontario

Ontario reported 296 people in general hospital wards with COVID-19 (up by 30  from the previous day) with 155 patients in intensive care units (up by two) and 137 patients in intensive care units on a ventilator (up by two).

Ontario Health officials have recently said intensive care occupancy can hit between 250 or 300 patients before the health care system would be impacted and require ramping down some non-urgent surgeries and procedures.

In the third wave peak, which was the worst wave for hospitalizations, the province saw as many as 900 patients in ICUs with COVID and almost 2,400 in general hospital wards.

More to come.

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