Here’s an update on COVID-19 cases in Ontario as well as in the greater Kawarthas region.
Today, Ontario is reporting 2,448 new cases, the fourth straight day of increases over 2,000 and the second straight day of an increase over 2,400. The seven-day average of daily cases has increased by 94 to 2,038.
The province is also reporting 102 more confirmed cases of the B.1.1.7 UK variant and 6 more confirmed cases of the P.1 Brazilian variant.
In the greater Kawarthas region, there are 16 new cases to report and an additional 12 cases resolved, with the number of active cases across the region increasing by 4 from yesterday to 105. See below for detailed numbers from each regional health unit (numbers for Kawartha Lakes, Northumberland, and Haliburton are not available on Sundays).
Most of today’s new cases are in Toronto (780), Peel (356), York (278), Durham (219), and Ottawa (150).
There are double-digit increases in Hamilton (78), Middlesex-London (75), Waterloo (64), Simcoe Muskoka (62), Niagara (49), Halton (45), Windsor-Essex (41), Thunder Bay (30), Sudbury (29), Eastern Ontario (27), Lambton (26), Southwestern (24), Kingston, Frontenac and Lennox & Addington (17), Wellington-Dufferin-Guelph (15), Hastings Prince Edward (11), Chatham-Kent (16), and Leeds, Grenville & Lanark (11), with smaller increases in Grey Bruce (9), Haldimand-Norfolk (8), Northwestern (7), and Brant (7).
The remaining 8 health units are reporting 5 or fewer new cases, with 3 health units reporting no new cases at all.
Of today’s new cases, 59% are among people 39 and younger, with the highest number of cases (935) among people ages 20-39 followed by 692 cases among people ages 40-59.
With 1,543 more cases resolved since yesterday, the percentage of resolved cases has decreased by 0.2% to 92.5%. The average positivity rate across Ontario is unchanged from yesterday at 4.5%, meaning that 45 out of every 1,000 tests performed were positive for COVID-19 on March 27.
Ontario is reporting 19 new COVID-19 deaths today, with no new deaths in long-term care homes. Ontario has averaged 12 new daily deaths over the past week (no change from yesterday).
While the number of hospitalizations has decreased by 68 from yesterday to 917, more than 10% of hospitals do not submit data for weekend reports, so the actual number of hospitalized patients may be higher. The number of patients with COVID-19 in ICUs has increased by 1 to 366 and the number of patients with COVID-19 on ventilators has increased by 25 to 217.
A total of 50,227 tests were completed yesterday, with the backlog of tests under investigation decreasing by 7,613 to 25,452.
A total of 1,981,282 doses of vaccine have now been administered, an increase of 64,950 from yesterday, with 309,285 people fully vaccinated with both doses of vaccine, an increase of 984 from yesterday. The number of fully vaccinated people represents 2.10% of Ontario’s population, with fully and partially vaccinated people representing 13.45% of the population; an estimated 70-90% of the population must be immunized to achieve herd immunity.
In the greater Kawarthas region, there are 16 new cases to report, including 9 in Hastings Prince Edward and 7 in Peterborough. Reports for Kawartha Lakes, Northumberland, and Haliburton are not provided on Sundays.
There are no new regional cases of presumed variants of concern. However, there is 1 new confirmed variant of concern case in Peterborough, for a total of 2 confirmed cases out of 184 presumed cases.
An additional 12 cases have been resolved, including 9 in Peterborough and 3 in Hastings Prince Edward.
There are currently 105 active cases in the greater Kawarthas region, an increase of 4 from yesterday, including 52 in Peterborough, 30 in Hastings Prince Edward (3 in Quinte West, 11 in Belleville, 6 in Tyendinaga & Deseronto, 4 in Prince Edward County, 5 in Central Hastings, and 1 in North Hastings), 11 in Kawartha Lakes, 11 in Northumberland, and 1 in Haliburton.
Since the pandemic began in the greater Kawarthas region, there have been 852 confirmed positive cases in the Peterborough area (790 resolved with 10 deaths), 576 in the City of Kawartha Lakes (523 resolved with 55 deaths), 486 in Northumberland County (463 resolved with 12 deaths), 65 in Haliburton County (63 resolved with 1 death), and 471 in Hastings and Prince Edward counties (435 resolved with 6 deaths). The most recent death was reported in Peterborough on March 16.
The provincial data in this report is pulled from Ontario’s integrated Public Health Information System (iPHIS) at 4 p.m. the previous day, as well as from systems in Toronto, Ottawa, and Middlesex-London at 2 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: 852 (increase of 7)
Confirmed variants of concern cases: 2 (increase of 1)
Presumed variants of concern cases: 184 (no change)
Active cases: 52 (decrease of 2)
Close contacts: 257 (no change)
Deaths: 10 (no change)
Resolved: 790 (increase of 9)
Hospitalizations (total to date): 30 (no change)*
Total tests completed: Over 46,250 (increase of 250)
Outbreaks: Unidentified congregate living facility in Peterborough, Gzowski College student residence at Trent University, Empress Gardens retirement home in Peterborough (no change)
Vaccine doses administered: 24,309 (last updated March 25)
*As of March 26, Peterborough Regional Health Centre is reporting fewer than 10 patients hospitalized with COVID-19 (no change) and 20 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 numbers are from March 27.
Confirmed positive: 1,127, including 576 in Kawartha Lakes, 486 in Northumberland, and 65 in Haliburton (increase of 5, including 2 in Kawartha Lakes and 3 in Northumberland)*
Cases with N501Y mutation: 45, including 9 in Kawartha Lakes, 36 in Northumberland (increase of 1 in Kawartha Lakes)**
Active cases: 23, including 11 in Kawartha Lakes, 11 in Northumberland, and 1 in Haliburton (net increase of 1)
Probable cases: 0 (no change)
High-risk contacts: 136, including 46 in Kawartha Lakes, 69 in Northumberland, and 19 in Haliburton (net increase of 11)***
Hospitalizations (total to date): 49, including 29 in Kawartha Lakes, 17 in Northumberland, and 3 in Haliburton (no change)****
Deaths (including among probable cases): 68, including 55 in Kawartha Lakes, 12 in Northumberland, and 1 in Haliburton (no change)
Resolved: 1,049, including 523 in Kawartha Lakes, 463 in Northumberland, 63 in Haliburton (increase of 3, including 1 in Kawartha Lakes, 1 in Northumberland, and 1 in Haliburton)
Tests completed: 160,932 (increase of 458)
Vaccine doses administered: 15,788 (no change, last updated on March 22)
Number of people fully vaccinated: 2,283 (no change, last updated on March 22)
Outbreaks: None (decrease 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 2 high-risk contacts directly followed up through the Public Health Ontario contact tracing process that are missing the contacts’ county.
****As of March 26, Ross Memorial Hospital in Lindsay reports 1 patient hospitalized with COVID-19 (no change).
*****An outbreak at Hyland Crest long-term care home in Minden has been declared resolved.
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: 471 (increase of 9)
Confirmed variants of concern cases: 10 (no change)
Active cases: 30 (increase of 6)
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: 435 (increase of 3)
Tests completed: 82,462 (increase of 3,240)
Vaccine doses administered: 24,932 (increase of 546)
Number of people fully vaccinated: 1,915 (no change)
Outbreaks: None (no change)
Province of Ontario
Confirmed positive: 343,140 (increase of 2,448)
COVID-19 variants of concern (VOC) confirmed cases: 1,625 of B.1.1.7 UK variant (increase of 102); 63 of B.1.351 South Africa variant (no change); 67 of P.1 Brazilian variant (increase of 6)
VOC R(t): 1.31 (increase of 0.03, last updated March 23)*
7-day average of daily new cases: 2,038 (increase of 94)
Resolved: 317,408 (increase of 1,543), 92.5% of all cases (decrease of 0.2%)
Positivity rate: 4.5% (no change)
Hospitalizations: 917 (decrease of 68)**
Hospitalizations in ICU: 366 (increase of 1)
Hospitalizations in ICU on ventilator: 217 (increase of 25)
Deaths: 7,327 (increase of 19)
7-day average of daily new deaths: 12 (no change)
Deaths of residents in long-term care homes: 3,893 (no change)
Total tests completed: 12,423,100 (increase of 50,227)
Tests under investigation: 25,452 (decrease of 7,613)
Vaccination doses administered: 1,981,282 (increase of 64,950), 13.45% of Ontario’s population (increase of 0.44%)***
People fully vaccinated (two doses): 309,285 (increase of 984), 2.10% of Ontario’s population (increase of 0.01%)***
*R(t) is a virus’s effective reproduction number, which is the average number of new infections caused by a single infected individual at a specific time (t) in a partially immunized population. To successfully eliminate a disease from a population, R(t) needs to be less than 1.
**More than 10% of hospitals do not submit data for weekend reports, so the actual number of hospitalized patients may be higher.
***An estimated 70-90% of the population must be immunized to achieve herd immunity.
For more information about COVID-19 in Ontario, visit covid-19.ontario.ca.
