Public Health Ontario has reported 2,333 new cases of COVID-19 today (March 31).
Today's report includes 1,973 recoveries and 15 new deaths.
Ten of the deaths reported today were individuals between 60 and 79 years old, and five were over the age of 79.
Four of the people who died were residents of long-term-care facilities.
The province has reported 94 new hospitalizations since yesterday, and 15 new admissions of COVID-19 patients to intensive care units.
The March 31 update provided by the province's public health agency also reported the following data:
- 20,155 active cases, which is up from 19,810 yesterday
- 1,111 people are currently hospitalized with COVID-19 in Ontario, up from 1,090 reported yesterday.
- There are 396 COVID patients in intensive care units (up from 387 yesterday) and 252 COVID patients on ventilators (up from 249 reported yesterday)
- The province reported 52,532 tests were processed yesterday resulting in a 4.8 per cent positivity rate.
- Another 40,446 tests are still under investigation and/or being processed. To date, 12.5 million tests have been completed.
- Of the 2,333 new cases reported today, 785 are from Toronto, 433 cases are from Peel, 222 are from York Region, and 24 are from Simcoe-Muskoka
- There are 56 active outbreaks at long-term care homes, 44 at retirement homes, and 33 at hospitals.
- The new cases reported today include 479 individuals aged 19 and under, 816 people between 20 and 39 years old, 685 people between 40 and 59 years old, 309 people between 60 and 79 years old, and 44 people aged 80 and over.
Variants of concern (Ontario-wide)
- 1,898 lab-confirmed cases of the UK variant strain of COVID-19 (B.1.1.7).
- 70 cases of B.1.351 (also known as the South African variant).
- 93 cases of P.1, which is the variant strain that originated in Brazil.
- Another 21,346 cases have screened positive with a mutation detected, but the lineage for the variant strain not yet sequenced.
- According to Public Health Ontario, there are delays between specimen collection and the testing required to confirm a variant of concern. As such, the reports can change and can differ from past case counts publicly reported.
Vaccines
- There were 89,873 doses of vaccines against COVID-19 administered on March 30, which is down from 70,645 administered on March 29.
- As of 6 p.m. on March 30, the province reported 2,192,253 doses of vaccine against COVID-19 have been administered.
- In total, 315,820 people have been fully vaccinated.
Public Health Ontario has confirmed 349,903 cases of COVID-19 since the start of the pandemic, and reported 322,382 recoveries and 7,366 deaths, of which 3,901 were individuals living in long-term care facilities.
The cumulative average incidence rate in the province is 2,354 cases per 100,000 people in Ontario.
The weekly incidence rate in Ontario is 96.6 cases per 100,000 people, which is an increase of 26.3 per cent from last week (March 15-21).
Yesterday, the Simcoe Muskoka District Health Unit reported 32 new cases in the region.
There are 459 active, lab-confirmed cases in the region, most of which are in Simcoe County.
Sequencing and PCR tests have confirmed 788 cases of the B.1.1.7 (variant strain that originated in the UK) in Simcoe Muskoka. There have also been 18 cases of the P.1 variant that first originated in Brazil in the region and one case of the B.1.351 strain that originated in South Africa.
Since the start of the pandemic, the local health unit has confirmed 7,658 cases of COVID-19 with 6,918 of those cases recovered and 198 cases ending in death.
There are 32 people from Simcoe County hospitalized with COVID-19, which includes seven new hospitalizations since Friday.
The weekly incidence rate in Simcoe Muskoka region was 51.5 cases per 100,000 people for the week of March 21 to 27. That's an increase of 9.1 per cent compared to 47.2 cases per 100,000 for the week of March 15 to 21.
