Ontario on Sunday reported 981 new COVID-19 cases and 42 new deaths, bringing those totals to 285,868 and 6,693, respectively, since January 2020.
Peel, York and Toronto remained the province’s worst-hit areas, with 209, 171 and 122 new cases, respectively, reported in the 24-hour period ending Saturday afternoon.
The province also reported 49 new cases in Ottawa, for a total of 13,942.
The Eastern Ontario Health Unit reported seven new cases, while Kingston, Frontenac and Lennox and Addington added three. Leeds, Grenville and Lanark District reported no new cases, while Renfrew County and District reduced its case count by one.
A resident at Lombard Manor in Lombardy has tested positive for COVID-19, prompting the Leeds, Grenville and Lanark District Health Unit to declare an outbreak. Health unit officials on Sunday reported “one resident member has tested positive for COVID-19.
There are currently 705 COVID patients in Ontario hospitals, 292 of them in intensive care and 203 on ventilators.
On the vaccine front, Health Minister Christine Elliot tweeted that as of 8 p.m. Saturday night 467,626 doses of the COVID-19 vaccine had been administered across the province.
Also on Sunday, the Ontario government identified the next groups in line to be vaccinated against COVID-19.
The province’s vaccine taskforce released the list in a memo sent to regional public health officers today.
Ongoing vaccine shipment delays forced the province to concentrate its inoculation efforts on long-term care residents in recent weeks.
But today’s memo said immediate priority should now be given to staff and essential caregivers in long-term care, high-risk retirement and First Nations elder care homes, and any residents of these settings that have not yet received a first dose of vaccine.
Hospital patients who have confirmed admission to a nursing home, high priority health care workers, and Indigenous adults in remote communities are also now cleared to start receiving initial doses of a COVID-19 vaccine.
Meanwhile, the number of people in Ontario with the UK variant increased by six, to 303, while three new cases of the South African variant were identified, doubling the province’s total to six.
Ontario confirmed its first case of the Brazilian variant of COVID-19 on Saturday, adding to three South African variant cases and hundreds of cases of the U.K. variant already reported in the province.
