Here’s an update on COVID-19 cases in Ontario as well as in the greater Kawarthas region.
Ontario is reporting 1,691 new cases today, with only 3 of Ontario’s 34 health units (Toronto, Peel, and York) reporting triple-digit case increases. The seven-day average of daily cases has fallen to 1,878 and the proportion of active cases has decreased for the 34th straight day.
Hospitalizations, ICU admissions, and ventilated patients have all decreased for the second day in a row. Ontario is reporting 15 new deaths, with no new deaths in long-term care homes.
Ontario has now administered over 15 million tests since the pandemic began and more than 8 million vaccine doses, with almost 55% of Ontario’s total population having received at least one dose of vaccine, and over 3.6% of all Ontarians fully vaccinated.
In the greater Kawarthas region, there are 8 new cases to report, including 5 in Hastings Prince Edward and 3 in Peterborough with an additional 16 cases resolved. Active cases across the region have decreased to 263, with 9 fewer active cases in Peterborough and no change in Hastings Prince Edward. See below for details from each individual health unit. Numbers for Kawartha Lakes, Northumberland, and Haliburton are unavailable on Sundays.
Most of the new cases reported today are in Toronto (455), Peel (326), and York (173).
There are double-digit increases reported today in Durham (96), Ottawa (92), Hamilton (87), Waterloo (59), Windsor-Essex (51), Halton (50), Porcupine (49), Middlesex-London (45), Niagara (43), Wellington-Dufferin-Guelph (28), Simcoe Muskoka (26), Haliburton, Kawartha, Pine Ridge (20), Lambton (13), Brant (13), and Peterborough (12), with smaller increases in Huron Perth (8), Southwestern (8), Kingston, Frontenac and Lennox & Addington (7), and Haldimand-Norfolk (7).
The remaining 12 health units are reporting 5 or fewer new cases, with two health units (Northwestern and Algoma) reporting no new cases at all.
Of today’s new cases, 62% are among people 39 and younger, with the highest number of cases (750) among people ages 20-39 followed by 461 cases among people ages 40-59 and 370 cases among people 19 and under.
With 2,458 more cases resolved since yesterday, the percentage of resolved cases has increased by 0.2% to at 94.4% — the 34th straight day the percentage of resolved cases has increased. The average positivity rate across Ontario has decreased by 0.3% to 5.7%, meaning that 57 out of every 1,000 tests performed were positive for COVID-19 on May 22.
Ontario is reporting 15 new COVID-19 deaths today, with no new deaths in long-term care homes. Ontario has averaged 18 new daily deaths over the past week, a decrease of 3 from yesterday.
Hospitalizations have decreased by 166 to 1,041, 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 13 to 693 and the number of patients with COVID-19 on ventilators has fallen by 24 to 480.
A total of 31,227 tests were completed yesterday, with the backlog of tests under investigation decreasing by 8,825 to 9,513.
A total of 8,065,607 doses of vaccine have now been administered, an increase of 140,330 from yesterday, and 531,603 people have been fully vaccinated with both doses of vaccine, an increase of 11,622 from yesterday.
The number of fully vaccinated people represents 3.61% of Ontario’s population, an increase of 0.08% from yesterday, with fully and partially vaccinated people representing 54.74% 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 8 new cases to report, including 5 in Hastings Prince Edward and 3 in Peterborough. Numbers are unavailable on Sundays for Kawartha Lakes, Northumberland, and Haliburton.
There are 9 new regional cases of variants of concern, including 7 in Peterborough and 2 in Hastings Prince Edward.
There has been 1 new hospitalization in Peterborough.
An additional 16 cases have been resolved, including 11 in Peterborough and 5 in Hastings Prince Edward.
There are currently 263 active cases in the greater Kawarthas region, a decrease of 9 from yesterday, including 103 in Peterborough, 80 in Kawartha Lakes, 43 in Hastings Prince Edward (13 in Quinte West, 10 in Belleville, 2 in Tyendinaga & Deseronto, 4 in Prince Edward County, 10 in Central Hastings, and 4 in North Hastings), 34 in Northumberland, and 3 in Haliburton.
Since the pandemic began in the greater Kawarthas region, there have been 1,455 confirmed positive cases in the Peterborough area (1,334 resolved with 18 deaths), 885 in the City of Kawartha Lakes (762 resolved with 56 deaths), 898 in Northumberland County (847 resolved with 17 deaths), 118 in Haliburton County (114 resolved with 1 death), and 1,099 in Hastings and Prince Edward counties (1,045 resolved with 11 deaths). The two most recent deaths were reported in Northumberland and Hastings Prince Edward on May 20.
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: 1,455 (increase of 2)*
Total variants of concern cases: 636 (increase of 7)
Active cases: 103 (decrease of 9)
Close contacts: 371 (no change)
Deaths: 18 (no change)
Resolved: 1,334 (increase of 11)
Hospitalizations (total to date): 64 (increase of 1)**
ICU admissions (total to date): 14 (no change)
Total tests completed: Over 52,000 (increase of 100)
Total vaccine doses administered (residents and non-residents): 69,989 (increase of 3,944 as of May 20)
Number of residents who have received first dose: 64,199 (increase of 3,675 as of May 20)
Number of residents fully vaccinated: 4,852 (increase of 277 as of May 20)
Outbreaks: Unidentified congregate living facility #3 in the City of Peterborough, Helping Hands Day Care in Peterborough County, Unidentified workplace #9 in Peterborough County, Unidentified workplace #10 in Peterborough County, Peterborough Day Care Centre in the City of Peterborough, Fairhaven long-term care home in Peterborough (no change)
*The health unit is reporting 3 new cases in the last 24 hours. The total case count has increased by 2 because 1 case has been removed from a previous day.
**As of May 20, Peterborough Regional Health Centre is reporting 7 patients currently hospitalized with COVID-19 (decrease of 1) and a total of 75 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 May 22; numbers from May 23 and May 24 will be released on Tuesday, May 25.
Confirmed positive: 1,901, including 885 in Kawartha Lakes, 898 in Northumberland, and 118 in Haliburton (increase of 7, including 6 in Kawartha Lakes and 1 in Northumberland)*
Total variants of concern cases: 586, including 252 in Kawartha Lakes, 301 in Northumberland, and 33 in Haliburton (increase of 15, including 6 in Kawartha Lakes and 9 in Northumberland)
Active cases: 117, including 80 in Kawartha Lakes, 34 in Northumberland, and 3 in Haliburton (net increase of 2)
Probable cases: None (no change)
Hospitalizations (total to date): 70, including 36 in Kawartha Lakes, 31 in Northumberland, and 3 in Haliburton (no change)**
Deaths (including among probable cases): 74, including 56 in Kawartha Lakes, 17 in Northumberland, and 1 in Haliburton (no change)
Resolved: 1,723, including 762 in Kawartha Lakes, 847 in Northumberland, and 114 in Haliburton (increase of 8, including 3 in Kawartha Lakes, 4 in Northumberland, and 1 in Haliburton)
Tests completed: 190,825 (increase of 386)
Vaccine doses administered to residents: 85,785 (increase of 6,353 as of May 17)
Number of residents fully vaccinated: 4,877 (increase of 415 as of May 17)
Outbreaks: Central East Correctional Centre in Lindsay, Campbellford Farm Supply LTD (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.
**As of May 21, Ross Memorial Hospital in Lindsay reports 3 patients hospitalized with COVID-19 (decrease of 1).
***An outbreak at OPP Offender Transport Lindsay 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. There will be no numbers released on May 24; Monday’s numbers will be included in Tuesday’s update.
Confirmed positive: 1,099 (increase of 5)
Confirmed variants of concern cases: 462 (increase of 2)
Active cases: 43 (no change)
Deaths: 11 (no change)
Currently hospitalized: 11 (no change)
Currently hospitalized and in ICU: 6 (no change)
Currently hospitalized and in ICU on ventilator: 6 (no change)
Resolved: 1,045 (increase of 5)
Tests completed: 142,694 (increase of 2,822)
Vaccine doses administered: 83,664 (increase of 294)
Number of people fully vaccinated: 6,713 (increase of 7)
Outbreaks: Quinte 5 at QHC Belleville General Hospital, Community outbreak in Hastings Highlands in North Hastings, Unidentified workplace in Belleville (no change)
Province of Ontario
Confirmed positive: 522,465 (increase of 1,691)
COVID-19 variants of concern (VOC) cases: 117,941 of B.1.1.7 UK variant (increase of 1,020); 805 of B.1.351 South Africa variant (increase of 22); 2,405 of P.1 Brazilian variant (increase of 88)
VOC R(t): 0.83 (decrease of 0.01 as of May 16)*
7-day average of daily new cases: 1,878 (decrease of 73)
Positivity rate: 5.7% (decrease of 0.3%)
Resolved: 493,179 (increase of 2,458), 94.4% of all cases (increase of 0.2%)
Hospitalizations: 1,041 (decrease of 166)**
Hospitalizations in ICU: 693 (decrease of 13)
Hospitalizations in ICU on ventilator: 480 (decrease of 24)
Deaths: 8,614 (increase of 15)
7-day average of daily new deaths: 18 (decrease of 3)
Deaths of residents in long-term care homes: 3,947 (no change)
Total tests completed: 15,004,716 (increase of 31,227)
Tests under investigation: 9,513 (decrease of 8,825)
Vaccination doses administered: 8,065,607 (increase of 140,330), 54.74% of Ontario’s population (increase of 0.95%)***
People fully vaccinated (two doses): 531,603 (increase of 11,622), 3.61% of Ontario’s population (increase of 0.08%)***
*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 did not submit data for this report, so the actual number of hospitalizations 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.
