Ontario reports 1,616 new COVID-19 cases, but lowest daily testing in several months

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Ontario is reporting 1,616 new COVID-19 cases on Tuesday. The provincial total now stands at 513,102.

It is the lowest daily case count since late March and is the first time cases are under 2,000 since then as well. However, the number of tests processed for Tuesday was also the lowest seen in several months. On Monday, 2,170 new cases were recorded and 2,199 on Sunday.

According to Tuesday’s report, 472 cases were recorded in Toronto, 360 in Peel Region, 116 in York Region, 114 in Hamilton and 102 in Durham Region.

All other local public health units reported fewer than 100 new cases in the provincial report.

The death toll in the province has risen to 8,506 as 17 more deaths were recorded.

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Medical experts calling on Ontario to rethink when and how 2nd COVID-19 vaccine doses are given

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Meanwhile, 479,630 Ontario residents were reported to have recovered from COVID-19, which is about 93 per cent of known cases. Resolved cases increased by 2,502 from the previous day.

There were more resolved cases than new cases on Tuesday.

Active cases in Ontario now stand at 24,966 — down from the previous day when it was at 25,869, and is down from May 11 when it was at 31,151. 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 2,287, which is down from yesterday at 2,352, and is down from last week at 2,914. A month ago, the seven-day average was around 4,300.

The government said 22,915 tests were processed in the last 24 hours which is the lowest number of daily tests since Sept. 9. There is currently a backlog of 20,325 tests awaiting results. A total of 14,817,959 tests have been completed since the start of the pandemic.

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Test positivity for Tuesday was 7.6 per cent. That figure is down from Monday’s at 7.9 per cent, and is down from last week when it was 8.5 per cent.

Ontario reported 1,484 people are hospitalized with COVID-19 (up by 164 from the previous day) with 764 patients in intensive care units (down by 15) and 559 patients in ICUs on a ventilator (up by 23). Overall, hospitalizations have been on the decline since the third wave peak in April.

As of 8 p.m. on Monday, more than 7.2 million COVID-19 vaccine doses have been administered. That marks an increase of 109,032 vaccines in the last day. There are 442,102 people fully vaccinated with two doses.

— More to come.

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