Here’s an update on COVID-19 cases in Ontario as well as in the greater Kawarthas region.
With Ontario’s state of emergency set to expire in 11 days and the province reporting 2,716 cases today, Ontario’s chief medical officer of health Dr. David Williams said daily cases need to drop well below 1,000 before Ontario can ease restrictions.
“I think it has to be well below 1,000 with the variants,” Dr. Williams said during a media briefing at Queen’s Park on Monday (May 10). “With the variants, it’s a new issue. They’re much more readily transmitted, so we have to be a lot more cautious.”
He added that, if 70% of the population is vaccinated, 500 or 600 cases per day is “achievable.”
“We’d like to do that so that, if we’re coming back down, we’re staying down,” he said. “We don’t want to go back up again. We do not want a fourth wave. We don’t want to close things back down again when we open up.”
Dr. Williams also said ICU admissions “in the range of around 200” would be necessary before the province can open back up.
With today’s new cases, the seven-day average of daily cases has decreased by 103 to 3,017 and the proportion of active cases across the province has declined for the 21st straight day. Only 5 health units are reporting triple-digit increases today.
Hospitalizations have fallen for the fifth day in a row, although not all hospitals submitted data for today’s report. There has been a large decrease in both the number of ICU patients with COVID-19 and in the number of patients on ventilators. Ontario is reporting 19 deaths today, with no new deaths in long-term care homes.
In the greater Kawarthas region, Peterborough is reporting a new COVID-19 related death, the third in the last week and the region’s 17th death. There are 43 new cases to report (including 24 in Kawartha Lakes, 9 in Northumberland, 7 in Hastings Prince Edward, 2 in Haliburton, and 1 in Peterborough) and an additional 28 cases resolved.
The number of active cases across the region has increased by 15 to 252, with the increase taking place largely in Kawartha Lakes with smaller increases in Northumberland and Haliburton. Active cases have dropped in Peterborough and remain the same in Hastings Prince Edward.
Most of the new cases reported today are in Toronto (807), Peel (707), York (294), Durham (168), and Hamilton (106).
There are double-digit increases reported today in Niagara (96), Halton (95), Ottawa (86), Waterloo (50), Simcoe Muskoka (41), Wellington-Dufferin-Guelph (41), Windsor-Essex (35), Middlesex-London (28), Haliburton, Kawartha, Pine Ridge (24), Porcupine (20), Renfrew (20), Huron Perth (18), Southwestern (15), and Peterborough (11), with smaller increases in Kingston, Frontenac and Lennox & Addington (9), Hastings Prince Edward (8), Haldimand-Norfolk (8), and Eastern Ontario (6).
The remaining 11 health units are reporting 5 or fewer new cases, with 3 health units (Northwestern, North Bay Parry Sound, and Timiskaming) reporting no new cases at all.
Of today’s new cases, 61% are among people 39 and younger, with the highest number of cases (1,112) among people ages 20-39 followed by 741 cases among people ages 40-59 and 544 cases among people 19 and under.
With 3,110 more cases resolved since yesterday, the percentage of resolved cases has increased by 0.2% to at 91.9% — the 21st straight day the percentage of resolved cases has increased. The average positivity rate across Ontario has increased by 2.0% to 9.1%, meaning that 91 out of every 1,000 tests performed were positive for COVID-19 on May 9.
Ontario is reporting 19 new COVID-19 deaths today, with no new deaths in long-term care homes. Ontario has averaged 30 new daily deaths over the past week, an increase of 1 from yesterday.
Hospitalizations have decreased by 8 to 1,632, although more than 10% of hospitals did not submit data for today’s report, so the number of hospitalized patients may actually be higher. The number of patients with COVID-19 in ICUs has decreased by 20 to 828 and the number of patients with COVID-19 on ventilators has decreased by 33 to 547.
A total of 27,175 tests were completed yesterday, with the backlog of tests under investigation decreasing by 3,248 to 12,837.
A total of 6,238,778 doses of vaccine have now been administered, an increase of 94,093 from yesterday, and 393,884 people have been fully vaccinated with both doses of vaccine, an increase of 1,049 from yesterday.
The number of fully vaccinated people represents 2.67% of Ontario’s population (no change from yesterday), with fully and partially vaccinated people representing 42.35% of the population, an increase of 0.64% from yesterday. An estimated 70-90% of the population must be immunized to achieve herd immunity.
In the greater Kawarthas region, there are 43 new cases to report, including 24 in Kawartha Lakes, 9 in Northumberland, 7 in Hastings Prince Edward, 2 in Haliburton, and 1 in Peterborough. New cases in Kawartha Lakes and Northumberland are for both May 9 and 10.
An outbreak at OPP Offender Transport Lindsay was declared on May 9, and an outbreak at an unidentified workplace in Belleville was declared on May 9.
There has been 1 new COVID-19 related death in Peterborough, the third in the last week and the region’s 17th death. There has been 1 new hospitalization in Northumberland, 1 new ICU admission in Peterborough, and 1 new ICU admission in Hastings Prince Edward.
There are 65 new regional cases of variants of concern, including 19 in Peterborough, 18 in Kawartha Lakes, 17 in Hastings Prince Edward, 9 in Northumberland, and 2 in Haliburton.
An additional 28 cases have been resolved, including 9 in Peterborough, 7 in Kawartha Lakes, 7 in Hastings Prince Edward, and 5 in Northumberland. An outbreak at an unidentified workplace in Prince Edward County was declared resolved on May 5. An outbreak at an unidentified workplace in Belleville was declared resolved on May 7.
There are currently 252 active cases in the greater Kawarthas region, an increase of 15 from yesterday, including 81 in Hastings Prince Edward (13 in Quinte West, 41 in Belleville, 1 in Tyendinaga & Deseronto, 6 in Prince Edward County, 12 in Central Hastings, and 8 in North Hastings), 65 in Peterborough, 63 in Kawartha Lakes, 36 in Northumberland, and 7 in Haliburton.
Since the pandemic began in the greater Kawarthas region, there have been 1,299 confirmed positive cases in the Peterborough area (1,217 resolved with 17 deaths), 796 in the City of Kawartha Lakes (690 resolved with 56 deaths), 852 in Northumberland County (802 resolved with 14 deaths), 110 in Haliburton County (102 resolved with 1 death), and 1,018 in Hastings and Prince Edward counties (927 resolved with 10 deaths). The most recent death was reported in Peterborough on May 10.
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: 1,299 (no net change)*
Total variants of concern cases: 507 (increase of 19)
Active cases: 65 (decrease of 10)
Close contacts: 227 (decrease of 3)
Deaths: 17 (increase of 1)
Resolved: 1,217 (increase of 9)
Hospitalizations (total to date): 58 (no change)**
ICU admissions (total to date): 11 (increase of 1)
Total tests completed: Over 50,900 (increase of 100)
Outbreaks: Unidentified congregate living facility #3 in Peterborough, Unidentified workplace #5 in Peterborough, Sunshine Daycare in Peterborough, Unidentified home child care centre #1 in Peterborough County (no change)
Vaccine doses administered: 60,427 (increase of 4,018 as of May 7)
Number of people fully vaccinated: 4,421 (increase of 210 as of May 7)
*The health unit is reporting 1 new case in the last 24 hours. The total case count has not changed because 1 case has been removed from a previous day.As of May 10, Peterborough Regional Health Centre is reporting 15 patients currently hospitalized with COVID-19 (increase of 1) and a total of 70 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 include May 9 and May 10.
Confirmed positive: 1,758, including 796 in Kawartha Lakes, 852 in Northumberland, and 110 in Haliburton (increase of 35, including 24 in Kawartha Lakes, 9 in Northumberland, and 2 in Haliburton)*
Total variants of concern cases: 469, including 186 in Kawartha Lakes, 259 in Northumberland, and 24 in Haliburton (increase of 29, including 18 in Kawartha Lakes, 9 in Northumberland, and 2 in Haliburton)
Active cases: 106, including 63 in Kawartha Lakes, 36 in Northumberland, and 7 in Haliburton (increase of 25, including 19 in Kawartha Lakes, 4 in Northumberland, and 2 in Haliburton)
Probable cases: 5 in Kawartha Lakes (net increase of 1)
Hospitalizations (total to date): 63, including 33 in Kawartha Lakes, 27 in Northumberland, and 3 in Haliburton (increase of 1 in Northumberland)**
Deaths (including among probable cases): 71, including 56 in Kawartha Lakes, 14 in Northumberland, and 1 in Haliburton (no change)
Resolved: 1,594, including 690 in Kawartha Lakes, 802 in Northumberland, and 102 in Haliburton (increase of 12, including 7 in Kawartha Lakes and 5 in Northumberland)
Tests completed: 184,488 (increase of 397)
Vaccine doses administered: 79,432 (increase of 7,067 as of May 10)
Number of people fully vaccinated: 4,462 (increase of 191 as of May 10)
Outbreaks: Transition House shelter in Cobourg, Staples and Swain Law Office in Lindsay, OPP Offender Transport 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.
**As of May 10, Ross Memorial Hospital in Lindsay reports 6 patients hospitalized with COVID-19 (no change).
***An outbreak at OPP Offender Transport Lindsay was declared on May 9.
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: 1,018 (increase of 7)
Confirmed variants of concern cases: 375 (increase of 17)
Active cases: 81 (no net change)
Deaths: 10 (no change)
Currently hospitalized: 18 (no change)
Currently hospitalized and in ICU: 8 (increase of 1)
Currently hospitalized and in ICU on ventilator: 6 (decrease of 1)
Resolved: 927 (increase of 7)
Tests completed: 135,855 (no change)
Vaccine doses administered: 66,763 (increase of 40)
Outbreaks: QHC Belleville General Hospital, Unidentified workplace in Belleville, Unidentified congregate living facility in Belleville, ICU of QHC Belleville General Hospital, Unidentified child care facility in Belleville, Unidentified workplace in Belleville (net decrease of 1)*
*An outbreak at an unidentified workplace in Prince Edward County was declared resolved on May 5. An outbreak at an unidentified workplace in Belleville was declared resolved on May 7. An outbreak at an unidentified workplace in Belleville, involving 2 cases, was declared on May 9.
Province of Ontario
Confirmed positive: 495,019 (increase of 2,716)
COVID-19 variants of concern (VOC) cases: 93,263 of B.1.1.7 UK variant (increase of 1,639); 511 of B.1.351 South Africa variant (increase of 111); 1,558 of P.1 Brazilian variant (increase of 329)
VOC R(t): 0.92 (increase of 0.03 as April 30)*
7-day average of daily new cases: 3,017 (decrease of 103)
Positivity rate: 9.1% (increase of 2.0%)
Resolved: 454,701 (increase of 3,110), 91.9% of all cases (increase of 0.2%)
Hospitalizations: 1,632 (decrease of 8)**
Hospitalizations in ICU: 828 (decrease of 20)
Hospitalizations in ICU on ventilator: 547 (decrease of 33)
Deaths: 8,327 (increase of 19)
7-day average of daily new deaths: 30 (increase of 1)
Deaths of residents in long-term care homes: 3,931 (no change)
Total tests completed: 14,529,616 (increase of 27,175)
Tests under investigation: 12,837 (decrease of 3,248)
Vaccination doses administered: 6,238,778 (increase of 94,093), 42.35% of Ontario’s population (increase of 0.64%)***
People fully vaccinated (two doses): 393,884 (increase of 1,049), 2.67% of Ontario’s population (no change)***
*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.
**As more than 10% of hospitals did not submit data for this report, the number of hospitalized patients may actually 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.
