Ontario reports 17 more COVID-19 deaths as total surpasses 7,000 since start of pandemic

Ontario is reporting 17 more COVID-19-related deaths, pushing the provincial total to past the 7,000 milestone to 7,014.

The province also reported 958 new coronavirus cases on Wednesday, bringing the cumulative total to 303,763.

Wednesday’s case count is slightly lower than Tuesday which saw 966 new infections. On Monday, 1,023 new cases were recorded and 1,062 on Sunday.

According to Wednesday’s provincial report, 249 cases were recorded in Toronto, 164 in Peel Region, 92 in York Region and 57 in Ottawa.

All other local public health units reported fewer than 50 new cases in the provincial report.

Meanwhile, 286,352 Ontarians were reported to have recovered from COVID-19, which is 94 per cent of known cases. Resolved cases increased by 1,090 from the previous day. There were more resolved cases than new cases on Wednesday.

Active cases in Ontario now stand at 10,397 — down from the previous day when it was 10,546, but up from last Wednesday at 10,050. At the peak of the coronavirus surge in January, active cases hit above 30,000.

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The government said 52,613 tests were processed in the last 24 hours. There is currently a backlog of 43,139 tests awaiting results. A total of 11,163,548 tests have been completed since the start of the pandemic.

Test positivity — the percentage of tests that come back positive — for Wednesday was 2.4 per cent, down from Tuesday when it was 2.9 per cent, but the same as a week ago when it was at 2.4 per cent.

Ontario reported 668 people hospitalized with COVID-19 (down by nine from the previous day) with 274 patients in intensive care units (down by 10) and 188 patients in ICUs on a ventilator (down by one).

As of 8 p.m. on Tuesday, the province has administered 754,419 COVID-19 vaccine doses, representing an increase of 27,398 in the last day. There are 266,710 people fully vaccinated with two doses.

— More to come.

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