Ford speaks as Ontario records 1,699 new COVID-19 cases and vaccine bookings expand

Ontario reported 1,699 new cases of COVID-19 Monday, as the province’s vaccination rollout expands.

Mississauga mayor ‘disappointed’ Peel Region not part of pharmacy pilot of AstraZeneca vaccine

Health Minster Christine Elliott said there were 500 new cases found in Toronto, as well as 318 in Peel, 155 in York Region and 114 in Hamilton. The seven-day average, which smooths out peaks and valleys in the data, now stands at 1,600.

Those cases come with around 31,100 tests completed, which is well below the province’s capacity. Testing numbers usually dip over the weekend, before rising later in the week.

The province is reporting three new deaths of people with COVID-19, as well as 1,175 cases that have been marked as resolved. The death toll for the pandemic now stands at 7,244.

There are 813 people in hospital, up from 765 the day before — and that’s with the caveat of that figure being typically
underreported on weekends.

There are also 298 people in intensive care, and 186 of those are on a ventilator, the province says. That’s down slightly from 302 and 189 the day before, respectively.

As of 8 p.m. Sunday, the province had administered just over 1.5 million vaccine doses, Elliott said. There were 31,335 vaccines administered Sunday, with 299,297 now fully vaccinated.

Other public health units that saw double-digit case increases were:

• Ottawa: 85
• Durham: 79
• Simcoe Muskoka: 64
• Halton: 57
• Lambton: 42
• Eastern Ontario Health Unit: 39
• Sudbury: 34
• Waterloo: 31
• Niagara: 24
• Thunder Bay: 16
• Windsor-Essex: 16
• Brant County: 15
• Wellington-Dufferin-Guelph: 14
• Kingston, Frontenac and Lennox & Addington Public Health: 13
• Leeds, Grenville & Lanark District Health Unit: 12
• Southwestern Public Health: 11
• Middlesex-London: 11
• Chatham-Kent: 10

Meanwhile, Ontario residents who are 75 or older can start booking their COVID-19 vaccines through the government’s online system starting today.

People in that age group were initially set to become eligible by the first week of April, but the province announced last week it was moving up the date, saying vaccinations are ahead of schedule.

Also starting today, certain pharmacies and family physicians in some regions will be allowed to administer the Oxford-AstraZeneca shot to anyone 60 or older.

A number of regions are also moving to different restriction levels in the province’s colour-coded pandemic framework Monday.

The Brant, Chatham-Kent and Leeds, Grenville and Lanark regions are now in the red zone — the second-most restrictive.

Wellington-Dufferin-Guelph is now in orange, and four others — Timiskaming, Porcupine, North Bay Parry Sound and Kingston, Frontenac and Lennox & Addington — are in yellow.

CBC