Ontario reported more than 2,300 new COVID-19 cases and 32 additional deaths on Wednesday, as the province’s positivity rate continues to decline.
Provincial health officials logged 2,320 new coronavirus infections, up from 2,073 cases reported a day ago, which marked the lowest single-day case count since late March.
The province reported 2,716 cases on Monday, 3,216 on Sunday and 2,864 on Saturday.
The seven-day rolling average has now dropped to 2,826, a notable decline from 3,432 seven days ago.
Of the latest fatalities, one person was between 20 and 39 years old, five were between 40 and 59 years old, 18 were between 60 and 79 years old and eight were 80 years old and over. Ontario’s virus-related death toll now stands at 8,374.
More than 3,000 lab-confirmed cases of variants of concern were identified in the past 24 hours, with over 2,900 being the dominant B.1.1.7 variant, which first emerged in the United Kingdom.
Another 3,477 people recovered from the disease, resulting in 29,962 active cases across the province.
Of the latest cases, 712 were logged in Toronto, while 452 were reported in Peel Region, 157 in York, 139 in Durham and 78 in Halton.
Ontario processed nearly 45,700 tests in the past 24 hours, up from 28,109 tests the previous day.
More than 28,100 test specimens are under investigation.
The rise in testing contributed to a drop in the province’s positivity rate to 6.4 per cent, compared to 8.5 per cent on Tuesday, according to the Ministry of Health. It is the lowest positivity rate since April 9.
COVID-19 hospitalizations saw a significant day-over-day decrease as 1,673 people were hospitalized across the province in the past 24 hours, down by 109 from the previous day.
Of those hospitalized, the Ministry of Health says 776 were in ICUs, compared to 802 a day ago, and 559 were breathing with the assistance of a ventilator.
However, Critical Care Services Ontario reported a slight discrepancy in the COVID-19 ICU occupancy with 773 people in ICUs, according to a tweet from Ontario Hospital Association President and CEO Anthony Dale.
Infectious diseases specialist Dr. Isaac Bogoch reacted positively to today’s numbers and noted that the province is heading in the right direction.
“Ontario today…sun is shining, #COVID19 cases declining, ICUs decompressing, vaccines quickly rolling out…good days ahead,” Bogoch tweeted Wednesday morning.
To date, there have been more than 499,400 lab-confirmed cases of COVID-19 and 461,076 recoveries since the virus first emerged in Ontario in Jan. 2020.
More than 6.1 million doses of vaccine have been administered in Ontario as of Tuesday evening, with 140,785 jabs into arms yesterday alone.
To date, more than 402,250 people have been fully vaccinated in the province since mid-December. Two doses of vaccine that are currently being administered in the province are needed for full immunization.
