Here’s an update on COVID-19 cases in Ontario as well as in the greater Kawarthas region.
Ontario is reporting another spike of 1,299 new cases, increasing the seven-day average of daily cases by 34 to 1,035.
There are 10 new cases of the P.1 Brazilian variant, for a total of 13, and 2 new cases of the B.1.1.7 UK variant, for a total of 828.
In the greater Kawarthas region, there are 9 new cases to report and an additional 7 cases resolved, with the number of active cases across the region increasing by 1 to 129. These numbers do not include Kawartha Lakes, Northumberland, and Haliburton as that health unit does not issue reports on Sundays.
Most of today’s new cases are in Toronto (329), Peel (192), and York (116).
There are double-digit increases in Hamilton (89), Waterloo (59), Durham (58), Thunder Bay (53), Ottawa (48), Halton (39), Wellington-Dufferin-Guelph (38), Simcoe Muskoka (36), Sudbury (34), Niagara (33), Windsor-Essex (32), Middlesex-London (29), Lambton (21), Peterborough (12), Brant (12), and Haldimand-Norfolk (12), with smaller increases in Eastern Ontario (9), Leeds, Grenville & Lanark (8), Huron Perth (7), and Renfrew (6).
The remaining 11 health units are reporting 5 or fewer new cases, with 3 health units reporting no new cases at all.
Of today’s new cases, 55% are among people 39 and younger, with the highest number of cases (448) among people ages 20-39 followed by 355 cases among people ages 40-59.
With 1,105 more cases resolved since yesterday, the percentage of resolved cases has decreased by 0.1% at 94.3%. The average positivity rate across Ontario has increased by 0.8% from yesterday to 3.1%, meaning that 31 out of every 1,000 tests performed were positive for COVID-19 on March 6.
Ontario is reporting 15 new COVID-19 deaths today, including 1 new death in a long-term care home. Ontario has averaged 12 new daily deaths over the past week, a decrease of 1 from yesterday.
Hospitalizations have decreased by 14 from yesterday to 606, although more than 10% of hospitals did not submit data for today’s report, so the actual number of hospitalizations may be higher. The number of patients with COVID-19 in ICUs has decreased by 5 from yesterday to 273 and the number of patients with COVID-19 on ventilators has decreased by 2 to 179.
A total of 46,586 tests were completed yesterday, with the backlog of tests under investigation decreasing by 7,739 to 20,057.
A total of 890,604 doses of vaccine have now been administered, an increase of 30,192 from yesterday, with 271,807 people fully vaccinated with both doses of vaccine, an increase of 1,182 from yesterday, representing 1.84% of Ontario’s population.
In the greater Kawarthas region, there are 9 new cases to report, including 8 in Peterborough and 1 in Hastings Prince Edward. Updated numbers for Kawartha Lakes, Northumberland, and Haliburton are unavailable because the health unit does not issue reports on Sundays.
There are now 73 presumed cases of variants of concern in Peterborough, an increase of 17 since yesterday.
An additional 7 cases have been resolved, including 4 in Peterborough and 3 in Hastings Prince Edward.
There are currently 129 active cases in the greater Kawarthas region, an increase of 1 from yesterday, including 86 in Peterborough, 15 in Hastings Prince Edward (11 in Belleville, 2 in Tyendinaga & Deseronto, and 2 in Prince Edward County), 17 in Northumberland, and 11 in Kawartha Lakes. There are no active cases in Haliburton.
Since the pandemic began in the greater Kawarthas region, there have been 718 confirmed positive cases in the Peterborough area (623 resolved with 9 deaths), 545 in the City of Kawartha Lakes (492 resolved with 55 deaths), 452 in Northumberland County (424 resolved with 11 deaths), 51 in Haliburton County (50 resolved with 1 death), and 427 in Hastings and Prince Edward counties (406 resolved with 6 deaths). The most recent death was reported in Haliburton on March 4.
The provincial data in this report is pulled from Ontario’s integrated Public Health Information System (iPHIS) at 12 p.m. the previous day. Data from local health units is more current and is usually reflected in the provincial data the following day. There may be discrepancies between the Ontario data reported today (which is from yesterday) and the local health unit data reported today (which is from today).
Peterborough Public Health
Peterborough Public Health’s service area is the City and County of Peterborough and the Hiawatha and Curve Lake First Nations.
The health unit provides daily reports, including on weekends, excluding statutory holidays.
Confirmed positive: 718 (increase of 7)*
Confirmed variants of concern cases: 1 (no change)
Presumed variants of concern cases: 73 (increase of 17)
Active cases: 86 (increase of 3)
Close contacts: 277 (increase of 15)
Deaths: 9 (no change)
Resolved: 623 (increase of 4)
Hospitalizations (total to date): 25 (no change)**
Total tests completed: Over 44,300 (increase of 200)
Outbreaks: Empress Gardens retirement home, Severn Court Student Residence, Trent Champlain College residence, Regency retirement home in Lakefield (no change)
Vaccine doses administered: 5,927 (no change)
*The health unit is reporting 8 new cases in the last 24 hours, although the total case count has increased by 7.
**As of March 5, Peterborough Regional Health Centre is reporting fewer than 5 patients hospitalized with COVID-19 (no change) and 17 patients transferred from other areas as a result of a provincial directive (no change).
Haliburton, Kawartha, Pine Ridge District Health Unit
The Haliburton, Kawartha, Pine Ridge District Health Unit’s service area is the City of Kawartha Lakes, Northumberland County, and Haliburton County.
The health unit provides reports from Monday to Saturday, excluding Sundays and statutory holidays. These number are from March 6.
Confirmed positive: 1,048, including 545 in Kawartha Lakes, 452 in Northumberland, and 51 in Haliburton (increase of 6, including 1 in Kawartha Lakes and 5 in Northumberland)*
Cases with N501Y mutation: 15, including 2 in Kawartha Lakes and 13 in Northumberland (increase of 1 in Northumberland)**
Active cases: 28, including 11 in Kawartha Lakes and 17 in Northumberland (net increase of 2)
Probable cases: 0 (no change)
High-risk contacts: 102, including 41 in Kawartha Lakes, 55 in Northumberland, and 3 in Haliburton (net increase of 9)***
Hospitalizations (total to date): 47, including 27 in Kawartha Lakes, 17 in Northumberland, and 3 in Haliburton (no change)****
Deaths (including among probable cases): 67, including 55 in Kawartha Lakes, 11 in Northumberland, and 1 in Haliburton (no change)
Resolved: 966, including 492 in Kawartha Lakes, 424 in Northumberland, 50 in Haliburton (increase of 4, including 3 in Kawartha Lakes and 1 in NOrthumberland)
Tests completed: 147,746 (increase of 654)
Outbreaks: Regency long-term care home in Port Hope, CrossFit Lindsay (increase of 1)*****
*The health unit states that total counts and counts for individual counties may fluctuate from previously reported counts as cases are transferred to or from the health unit based on case investigation details and routine data cleaning.
**The N501Y mutation has been identified in variants of concern including the B.1.1.7 UK variant, the B.1.351 South Africa variant, and the P.1 Brazilian variant.
***This total includes an additional 3 high-risk contacts directly followed up through the Public Health Ontario contact tracing process that are missing the contacts’ county.
****As of March 5, Ross Memorial Hospital in Lindsay reports no patients hospitalized with COVID-19 (no change).
*****An outbreak was declared at CrossFit Lindsay on March 5.
Hastings Prince Edward Public Health
Hastings Prince Edward Public Health’s service area is Hastings County (including Bancroft) and Prince Edward County.
The health unit provides daily reports, including on weekends, excluding statutory holidays.
Confirmed positive: 427 (increase of 1)
Confirmed variants of concern cases: 4 (no change)
Active cases: 15 (decrease of 2)
Deaths: 6 (no change)
Currently hospitalized: 0 (no change)
Currently hospitalized and in ICU: 0 (no change)
Currently hospitalized and in ICU on ventilator (total to date): 0 (no change)
Resolved: 406 (increase of 3)
Tests completed: 70,490 (increase of 4,191)
Vaccines administered: 7,231 (increase of 860)
Outbreaks: Unidentified workplace in Central Hastings, unidentified workplace in Belleville (no change)
Province of Ontario
Confirmed positive: 308,296 (increase of 1,299)
Total COVID-19 variant cases: 828 of B.1.1.7 UK variant (increase of 2); 31 of B.1.351 South Africa variant (no change); 13 of P.1 Brazilian variant (increase of 10)
7-day average of daily new cases: 1,035 (increase of 34)
Resolved: 290,840 (increase of 1,105), 94.3% of all cases
Positivity rate: 3.1% (increase of 0.8%)
Hospitalizations: 606 (decrease of 14)*
Hospitalizations in ICU: 273 (decrease of 5)
Hospitalizations in ICU on ventilator: 179 (decrease of 2)
Deaths: 7,067 (increase of 15)
7-day average of daily new deaths: 12 (decrease of 1)
Deaths of residents in long-term care homes: 3,876 (increase of 1)
Total tests completed: 11,398,354 (increase of 46,586)
Tests under investigation: 20,057 (decrease of 7,739)
Vaccination doses administered: 890,604 (increase of 30,192)
People fully vaccinated (two doses): 271,807 (increase of 1,182), 1.84% of Ontario’s population (est. 70-90% required for herd immunity)
*More than 10% of hospitals did not submit data for this report, so the actual number of hospitalizations may be higher.
For more information about COVID-19 in Ontario, visit covid-19.ontario.ca.
