TORONTO – Ontario today reported over 400 new cases of Covid-19 and 3 deaths. 409, to be precise, new infections, compared to 321 on Wednesday but still down compared to 413 a week ago. With the three new deaths, Ontario’s death toll is now 9,865.
The seven-day moving average remains unchanged from Wednesday in Ontario: 366, down from a week ago (413). The provincial laboratories processed 31,383 tests today, producing a positive rate of 1.3%, down from 1.6% a week ago.
Of the latest cases, 220 were detected in unvaccinated individuals, 16 partially vaccinated, 144 fully vaccinated and 29 with unknown vaccination status. Fully vaccinated people account for 35% of cases today.
Dr. Sumon Chakrabarti, an infectious disease specialist at Trillium Health Partners, said the vaccine is still proving to have a high rate of effectiveness against serious illness and death. “We are seeing – he said – that there is a decline, whereby people are more likely to have some mild symptoms, but the protection against serious diseases is still very strong even in health workers who have been vaccinated, like me, already in December “, the doctor reiterated to Cp24 on Thursday morning.
So far, 88% of eligible Ontarians have received one dose of the vaccine and 84% have received two doses and are fully vaccinated. Children under 12 are not yet eligible for a vaccine, but Health Canada is currently working to approve Pfizer’s vaccine for children ages 5 to 11.
Meanwhile, another 366 people have recovered from the virus in the last 24 hours: the active cases – those known to the health authorities – are now 3,018 throughout the province.
As for the territorial distribution of the new cases, Toronto recorded 54 today, while 45 were reported in the Peel region, 25 in York, 7 in Durham and 5 in Halton. 28 new cases were also reported in Ottawa and 26 in Sudbury.
197 patients with the virus in Ontario hospitals and 132 in intensive care units. Of those in ICU, 116 are either not fully vaccinated or have an unknown vaccination status and 16 are fully vaccinated.
To date, since the start of the pandemic, there have been 598,840 cases of Covid-19 in Ontario and 585,957 healings since January 2020.
And now it’s alarm in Alberta for pregnant women. During the fourth wave of the pandemic, more pregnant women were admitted to provincial intensive care units (20) than those who ended up in ICU in the previous three waves (16). This is what was stated by Dr. Verena Kuret, head of Maternal-Fetal Medicine at the University of Calgary.
Kuret noted that for pregnant women admitted to intensive care, premature birth rates are “very high”. “Usually – she added – these are women in the third trimester and who have not been vaccinated. We perform emergency caesareans in an attempt to save their lives, create space for their lungs to expand and breathe ”.
Meanwhile, 645 new cases of Covid-19 were registered in Alberta on Wednesday out of a total of 11,343 tests carried out, for a positive rate of 5.6%. 810 hospitalized with the virus (-26): 184 are in intensive care (+1). Another 10 deaths.
