Here’s an update on COVID-19 cases in Ontario as well as in the greater Kawarthas region.
Ontario is reporting 2,199 new cases today, with triple-digit increases in 5 of Ontario’s 34 health units. The seven-day average of daily cases has decreased to 2,430 and the proportion of active cases continues to decline for the 27th day in a row.
Hospitalizations have decreased dramatically, but the number of hospitalizations may actually be higher as more than 10% of hospitals did not submit data for today’s report. There is no change in the number of ICU patients and a small decrease in the number of patients on ventilators. Ontario is reporting 30 deaths today, with 1 new death in a long-term care home for the second day in a row.
Ontario has now administered more than 7 million doses of vaccine, with 48% of Ontario’s total population having received at least one dose.
In the greater Kawarthas region, there are 15 new cases to report, including 13 in Peterborough and 2 in Hastings Prince Edward. There is 1 new COVID-related death in Peterborough, the region’s 18th death. Active cases in Peterborough have increased by 4 to 107 and active cases in Hastings Prince Edward have decreased by 10 to 53. Numbers for Kawartha Lakes, Northumberland, and Haliburton are unavailable as the health unit does not issue updates on Sundays.
Most of the new cases reported today are in Toronto (633), Peel (547), York (172), Durham (143), and Hamilton (129).
There are double-digit increases reported today in Ottawa (74), Halton (74), Niagara (59), Windsor-Essex (50), Waterloo (48), Middlesex-London (43), Simcoe Muskoka (42), Porcupine (37), Brant (18), Wellington-Dufferin-Guelph (18), Southwestern (14), Haliburton, Kawartha, Pine Ridge (13), Haldimand-Norfolk (11), and Eastern Ontario (10), with smaller increases in Hastings Prince Edward (9), Huron Perth (7), Lambton (7), Kingston, Frontenac and Lennox & Addington (6), Renfrew (6), and Peterborough (6).
The remaining 9 health units are reporting 5 or fewer new cases, with 1 health unit (Timiskaming) reporting no new cases at all.
Of today’s new cases, 62% are among people 39 and younger, with the highest number of cases (904) among people ages 20-39 followed by 596 cases among people ages 40-59 and 451 cases among people 19 and under.
With 3,079 more cases resolved since yesterday, the percentage of resolved cases has increased by 0.2% to at 93.1% — the 27th straight day the percentage of resolved cases has increased. The average positivity rate across Ontario has increased by 0.6% to 6.8%, meaning that 68 out of every 1,000 tests performed were positive for COVID-19 on May 15.
Ontario is reporting 30 new COVID-19 deaths today, with 1 new death in a long-term care home for the second day in a row. Ontario has averaged 25 new daily deaths over the past week, a decrease of 3 from yesterday.
Hospitalizations have fallen by 254 to 1,292, but 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 remains unchanged at 785 and the number of patients with COVID-19 on ventilators has decreased by 8 to 552.
A total of 33,142 tests were completed yesterday, with the backlog of tests under investigation decreasing by 6,974 to 12,559.
A total of 7,064,815 doses of vaccine have now been administered, an increase of 139,583 from yesterday, and 429,636 people have been fully vaccinated with both doses of vaccine, an increase of 6,676 from yesterday.
The number of fully vaccinated people represents 2.92% of Ontario’s population, an increase of 0.05% from yesterday, with fully and partially vaccinated people representing 47.95% of the total population, an increase of 0.95% from yesterday. An estimated 70-90% of the population must be immunized to achieve herd immunity.
In the greater Kawarthas region, there are 15 new cases to report, including 13 in Peterborough and 2 in Hastings Prince Edward. Numbers for Kawartha Lakes, Northumberland, and Haliburton are unavailable as the health unit does not issue updates on Sundays; numbers for today will be included in tomorrow’s update.
An outbreak at unidentified workplace in Peterborough County was declared on May 16.
There is 1 new COVID-related death in Peterborough, the region’s 18th death.
There is 1 new regional case of a variant of concern, in Hastings Prince Edward.
An additional 19 cases have been resolved, including 12 in Hastings Prince Edward and 7 in Peterborough.
There are currently 241 active cases in the greater Kawarthas region, a decrease of 6 from yesterday, including 107 in Peterborough, 53 in Hastings Prince Edward (13 in Quinte West, 23 in Belleville, 1 in Tyendinaga & Deseronto, 5 in Prince Edward County, 8 in Central Hastings, and 3 in North Hastings), 42 in Kawartha Lakes, 30 in Northumberland, and 9 in Haliburton.
Since the pandemic began in the greater Kawarthas region, there have been 1,387 confirmed positive cases in the Peterborough area (1,262 resolved with 18 deaths), 813 in the City of Kawartha Lakes (728 resolved with 56 deaths), 870 in Northumberland County (824 resolved with 16 deaths), 116 in Haliburton County (106 resolved with 1 death), and 1,052 in Hastings and Prince Edward counties (989 resolved with 10 deaths). The most recent death was reported in Peterborough on May 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: 1,387 (increase of 13)
Total variants of concern cases: 558 (no change)
Active cases: 107 (increase of 4)
Close contacts: 293 (increase of 5)
Deaths: 18 (increase of 1)
Resolved: 1,262 (increase of 7)
Hospitalizations (total to date): 61 (no change)*
ICU admissions (total to date): 13 (no change)
Total tests completed: Over 51,300 (no change)
Total vaccine doses administered (residents and non-residents): 66,045 (increase of 5,618 as of May 14)
Number of residents who have received first dose: 60,524
Number of residents fully vaccinated: 4,575 (increase of 154 as of May 14)
Outbreaks: Unidentified congregate living facility #3 in Peterborough, Helping Hands Day Care in Peterborough County, Unidentified workplace #9 in Peterborough County (increase of 1)**
*As of May 13, Peterborough Regional Health Centre is reporting 12 patients currently hospitalized with COVID-19 (decrease of 1) and a total of 73 patients transferred from other areas as a result of a provincial directive (no change).
**An outbreak at unidentified workplace in Peterborough County was declared on May 16.
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 May 15; numbers for May 16 and 17 will be included in Monday’s report.
Confirmed positive: 1,799, including 813 in Kawartha Lakes, 870 in Northumberland, and 116 in Haliburton (increase of 12, including 8 in Kawartha Lakes and 4 in Northumberland)*
Total variants of concern cases: 503, including 200 in Kawartha Lakes, 273 in Northumberland, and 30 in Haliburton (increase of 4, including 3 in Northumberland and 1 in Haliburton)
Active cases: 81, including 42 in Kawartha Lakes, 30 in Northumberland, and 9 in Haliburton (decrease of 9, including 6 in Kawartha Lakes, 2 in Northumberland, and 1 in Haliburton)
Probable cases: 6, including 5 in Kawartha Lakes and 1 in Northumberland (no change)
Hospitalizations (total to date): 66, including 34 in Kawartha Lakes, 29 in Northumberland, and 3 in Haliburton (no change)**
Deaths (including among probable cases): 73, including 56 in Kawartha Lakes, 16 in Northumberland, and 1 in Haliburton (no change)
Resolved: 1,658, including 728 in Kawartha Lakes, 824 in Northumberland, and 106 in Haliburton (increase of 19, including 12 in Kawartha Lakes, 6 in Northumberland, and 1 in Haliburton)
Tests completed: 187,864 (increase of 432)
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: Staples and Swain Law Office in Lindsay, OPP Offender Transport Lindsay, Dairy Queen in Lindsay (no change)
*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 14, Ross Memorial Hospital in Lindsay reports 6 patients hospitalized with COVID-19 (decrease of 2).
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: 1,052 (increase of 2)
Confirmed variants of concern cases: 416 (increase of 1)
Active cases: 53 (decrease of 10)
Deaths: 10 (no change)
Currently hospitalized: 14 (decrease of 1)
Currently hospitalized and in ICU: 6 (no change)
Currently hospitalized and in ICU on ventilator: 5 (no change)
Resolved: 989 (increase of 12)
Tests completed: 139,595 (increase of 3,412)
Vaccine doses administered: 73,234 (no change)
Number of people fully vaccinated: 5,756 (no change)
Outbreaks: Quinte 5 at QHC Belleville General Hospital, ICU of QHC Belleville General Hospital, Unidentified child care facility in Belleville, Unidentified workplace in Belleville, Unidentified workplace in Central Hastings, Community outbreak in Hastings Highlands in North Hastings (no change)
Province of Ontario
Confirmed positive: 509,316 (increase of 2,199)
COVID-19 variants of concern (VOC) cases: 107,541 of B.1.1.7 UK variant (increase of 1,498); 677 of B.1.351 South Africa variant (increase of 52); 1,983 of P.1 Brazilian variant (increase of 130)
VOC R(t): 0.87 (decrease of 0.05 as May 8)*
7-day average of daily new cases: 2,430 (decrease of 146)
Positivity rate: 6.8% (increase of 0.6%)
Resolved: 474,175 (increase of 3,079), 93.1% of all cases (increase of 0.2%)
Hospitalizations: 1,292 (decrease of 254)**
Hospitalizations in ICU: 785 (no change)
Hospitalizations in ICU on ventilator: 552 (decrease of 8)
Deaths: 8,485 (increase of 30)
7-day average of daily new deaths: 25 (decrease of 3)
Deaths of residents in long-term care homes: 3,939 (increase of 1)
Total tests completed: 14,770,546 (increase of 33,142)
Tests under investigation: 12,559 (decrease of 6,974)
Vaccination doses administered: 7,064,815 (increase of 139,583), 47.95% of Ontario’s population (increase of 0.95%)***
People fully vaccinated (two doses): 429,636 (increase of 6,676), 2.92% of Ontario’s population (increase of 0.05%)***
*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.
**The number of hospitalizations may actually be higher as more than 10% of hospitals did not submit data for today’s report.
***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.
