COVID-19: Ontario reports 2,448 new cases, 150 in Ottawa

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AT A GLANCE

COVID-19 updates in Ottawa and Ontario

Ontario reported 2,448 cases of COVID-19 Sunday, Minister of Health Christine Elliott said in her morning update.

There were also 780 new cases in Toronto, 356 in Peel, 278 in York Region and 219 in Durham.

There were 19 new deaths across the province.

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Total cases across Ontario have now reached 343,140 with 317,408 cases resolved and 7,327 deaths.

There were a reported 917 people in Ontario hospitals, 366 in intensive care and 217 in intensive care on a ventilator.

As of 8:00 p.m. Saturday, 1,981,282 doses of COVID-19 vaccines had been administered, Elliott said.

In Canada, the provinces reported 166,566 new vaccinations administered on Saturday for a total of 4,967,319 doses given. Nationwide, 662,576 people or 1.7 per cent of the population have been fully vaccinated. The provinces have administered doses at a rate of 13,106.633 per 100,000.

Ottawa Public Health reported 126 new cases of COVID-19 Sunday, for a total of 16,881 since the pandemic began, and a fourth consecutive day of three-digit case increases. The death toll remained 459.

There were 133 new cases reported Saturday after 139 new cases were reported Friday and 151 on Thursday.

Active cases rose to from 954 to 1,029 with 34 patients in Ottawa hospitals up from the 30 reported Saturday, with 11 in intensive care, up one.

The capital’s weekly incidence rate from March 20 to 26 was 71.9 per 100,000 residents. The test positivity level for March 19 to 25 was 4.6 per cent. The seven-day average reproductive level was at 1.16.

The threshold for the red (control) levels is a weekly incidence of 40 or more per 100,000, a test positivity rate of 2.5 per cent or more and a reproduction number of 1.2 or more.

There were 27 ongoing outbreaks at health care institutions, OPH reported Sunday, and 11 in child care and schools, including a new outbreak involving two student cases at St. Peter High School.

There were seven ongoing community outbreaks, all in workplaces, including in construction, health, recreation, services and retail and two in restaurants.

Public Health Ontario reported 27 new cases from the Eastern Ontario Health Unit, which joins Ottawa in the red level of provincial public health restrictions Monday.

There were 11 new cases from Hastings Prince Edward Public Health, 17 from Kingston, Frontenac and Lennox and Addington Public Health, 11 from the Leeds, Grenville and Lanark District Health Unit and two cases in the Renfrew County and District Health Unit.

Sunday was the fourth day that new cases in Ontario topped 2,000, a level not seen since the end of January.

Ontario’s effective reproduction number — an estimate of the average number of people that one person with COVID-19 will infect — was 1.15 as of Tuesday, up 0.02 from the previous week.

COVID-19 vaccination news

Select Ottawa pharmacies have been identified as being among the next group of drug stores to offer COVID-19 vaccinations under a provincial program, Nepean MPP Lisa MacLeod, Ontario’s heritage, sport, tourism and culture minister, confirmed Saturday.

But delayed shipments of the AstraZeneca vaccine used in the program mean the jabs are not expected to start before April.

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Federal Procurement Minister Anita Anand said Friday that 1.5 million doses of AstraZeneca were expected to arrive in Canada via truck from the United States next Tuesday.

“That’s when (the federal government) is getting the shipment,” Premier Doug Ford’s spokesperson, Ivana Yelich, tweeted Saturday. “Last time, provinces waited more than week before receiving the doses. We are being told the same will happen again.”

Pharmacies in Toronto, Kingston, and Windsor-Essex have been administering the AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine in a pilot project for a number of weeks.

ALSO: The need for speed: How Canada approved five vaccines for COVID-19 in under a year

New COVID-19 cases in Quebec

Amid concerns that a third wave is building in Quebec, the province reported 917 new COVID-19 cases on Sunday. The seven day rolling average of cases climbed to 853, its highest point since mid-March.

The number of hospitalizations due to the virus now stands at 480 patients, a decrease of one. Of those patients, 114 are in intensive care — an increase of six.

A total of 308,311 infections have now been confirmed in the province since the first one was reported in February of 2020.

Quebec also announced that two more COVID-19 fatalities, both of which occurred between March 21 and 26. A total of 10,647 have now been attributed to the virus in Quebec.

Meanwhile, the Collège des médecins du Québec is asking the government to re-evaluate its decision to lift various COVID-19 restrictions across the province.

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The request comes in the middle of widespread reopenings in Quebec, including in red zones, where gyms, theatres, cinemas, and other such establishments have been given the green light to open their doors; places of worship can host up to 250 people at once; and high school students are returning to school full-time.

There were 50 new cases reported in the Outaouais for a total of 7, 293 cases.

More COVID-19 news and updates

Variants in Canada

Nearly one-quarter of all active COVID-19 cases in Alberta are variants of concern.

In Quebec, the number of variant cases in the province confirmed by sequencing remained stable at 705 on Sunday while the number of presumed cases jumped by 553 to 5,413. Nearly half of the province’s variant cases — both presumed and confirmed are in Montreal.

The real death toll in Mexico

Mexico’s death toll from the coronavirus pandemic is likely at least 60% higher than the confirmed number, putting it in excess of 300,000, according to government data.

Surge in cases and hospitalizations in Ukraine

A record number of Ukrainians were taken to hospital with COVID-19 over the past 24 hours, health ministry data showed on Sunday as the country grapples with a surge in infections.

Health Minister Maksym Stepanov said on Facebook 5,052 people had been hospitalized in the past day compared to the previous record of 4,887 people registered on March 17. Ukraine also reported 11,932 new infections in the past 24 hours and 203 coronavirus related deaths. More than 1.64 million people have been infected and 31,954 have died since the start of the pandemic.

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Russia’s vaccination progress

Russian President Vladimir Putin said he expected Russia to reach herd immunity to coronavirus and lift pandemic-related restrictions by the end of summer, the Interfax news agency reported on Sunday, citing his televised comments.

Putin, who got vaccinated this week with a Russian-made vaccine, also said the only side effects he experienced were slight pain in his muscles the next morning and an uncomfortable feeling in the site of the injection.

Curfew in India

Authorities in India’s western state of Maharashtra imposed night curfews on Sunday to tackle a record surge in COVID-19 cases with the financial capital Mumbai reporting 6,123 new cases, the highest single-day spike since March last year.

India recorded 62,714 cases of the coronavirus in the last 24 hours, the country’s Health Ministry said on Sunday, the highest single-day tally since mid-October last year. With 312 deaths, single-day fatalities were also at their highest since Christmas, according to ministry data.

Cases rise in Italy

Italy reported 297 coronavirus-related deaths on Sunday against 380 the day before, while the daily tally of new infections fell to 19,611 from 23,839.

Italy has registered 107,933 deaths linked to COVID-19 since its outbreak emerged in February last year, the second-highest toll in Europe after Britain and the seventh-highest in the world. It has reported 3.53 million cases to date.

-With files from Reuters and The Canadian Press