TORONTO – Weekend to forget in Ontario: for the third consecutive day, the province has in fact recorded over 1,000 new cases of Covid-19, with the count of infections reaching the highest level since the end of May. The provincial health officials in fact detected 1,184 infections today, compared to 1,053 on Saturday and 1,031 on Friday. We have to go back to 28 May to find a greater number of cases than today: at that time, the infections had been 1,273. 

The seven-day moving average of daily infections is now 926, up from 761 a week ago. With 31,735 tests processed in the last 24 hours, the provincial level of positivity is now 3.2%, unchanged from last Sunday.

Of the cases confirmed today, 557 involved unvaccinated people, 22 partially vaccinated people, 536 fully immunized people, and 69 with an unknown vaccination status. This means that unvaccinated individuals account for approximately 47% of all new infections representing only about 20% of the Ontario population. About 76% of the province’s (total) population is fully vaccinated against Covid-19.

In recent days, Ontario has also seen an increase in the number of Covid-19 patients in intensive care. According to the Ministry of Health, there are currently 164 hospitalized in ICUs, compared to 135 patients last week. 136 of the ICU patients are either not fully vaccinated or have an unknown vaccination status while only 24 of them are fully immunized. The number of active (and known) Covid-19 in Ontario reached 8,115, up from 6,484 in the week.

Regarding the territorial distribution of cases, the public health units with the highest number of new infections include Toronto (152), Simcoe-Muskoka (96) York Region (88), Windsor (86), Peel Region (81), Ottawa (54). On Saturday, both Peel Region and Hamilton also reported their first cases of the Omicron variant and Toronto confirmed its first three cases of the variant on Friday.

Similar situation in Quebec which on Sunday recorded 1,256 new cases and 1 death. which brings the total to 11,586 since the start of the pandemic. Most of the new cases reported were in people who were not vaccinated or who had received a dose less than two weeks prior to the infection. The non-immunized group represents 661 of today’s 1,256 cases.

On the other hand, hospitalizations have slowed down, with six fewer beds occupied: there are now 219 people receiving treatment, 59 of whom are in intensive care.

Currently, 81% of eligible Quebecers (ages 5 and up) are fully vaccinated, with 86% having received at least one dose. As of Sunday morning, 4% also received the third dose, the “booster”. 21 thousand doses administered to the new age group 5-11 years (given that for Ontario, where the vaccinations of children have also begun, it is not yet available). According to Quebec public health authorities, “unvaccinated people are 3.3 times more likely to contract Covid-19 than vaccinated people and 15.6 times more likely to end up in hospital after getting sick.”

Photo by CDC on Unsplash