COVID-19: Ontario reported 4,401 new cases, 15 deaths

The provincial positivity rate hits a new high as hospitals begin cancelling non-emergency surgeries

Sajith T S/flickr

Top COVID-19 stories and news

Here’s the list of people eligible for vaccines in Phase 2

Here are the rules for Ontario’s new stay-at-home-order

Here’s the list of third wave shutdown restrictions in Ontario

Eight questions answered on the AstraZeneca controversy

Ontario reports 4,401 new cases and 15 deaths

Ontario is reporting 4,401 new COVID-19 cases and 15 deaths on April 12 as the province’s testing positivity rate surpasses the highest peak previously seen during the second wave.

Ontario detected a record high of 4,456 new cases on Sunday, 3,813 on Saturday and 4,227 on Friday. The seven-day rolling average has reached an all-time high of 3,782.

With 47,929 tests completed in the past 24 hours, the province’s positivity rate is at 9.2 per cent. At the peak of the second wave, the positivity rate hovered closer to six per cent.

An additional 74,722 doses of the vaccine were administered in the past day, bringing the provincial total to 3,214,465 doses. That includes 333,419 people who have been fully vaccinated.

Active cases have increased to 34,758 in Ontario, and hospitalizations increased by over 100 to 1,646. That includes 619 people in intensive care, with 408 on ventilators.

Hospitals will started reducing non-emergency surgeries today to increase intensive care unit capacity for the rising number of COVID-19 patients.

Starting today, the Hospital for Sick Children will start accepting paediatric inpatients from hospitals across the GTA in order to free up capacity.

In a statement, the hospital said it is working with hospitals from around the region to prepare for patient transfers.

“SickKids routinely accepts paediatric patients from other hospitals and is prepared to provide safe, high-quality care to additional paediatric patients, and to maintain stable hospital capacity for children and youth from across the GTA, with minimal impacts to clinical care and regular hospital operations.

“At this time, we are only admitting paediatric patients from certain hospitals in the GTA. SickKids is committed to providing ongoing support to GTA hospitals as the third wave of the COVID-19 pandemic continues to strain the health-care system,” the statement added.

Of the 15 deaths reported today, two were between the ages of 40 and 59.

Variants of concern continue to dominate the spread of COVID-19, with 2,153 additional confirmed B117 cases being reported, three more B1351 cases and six more P1 cases.

To date, there have been 391,009 total COVID-19 cases in Ontario and 7,567 deaths.

New COVID-19 cases in Ontario on April 12

The following regions reported five or more new COVID-19 cases:

Toronto = 1,282

Peel = 772

York Region = 564

Ottawa = 339

Halton Region = 177

Niagara Region = 147

Region of Waterloo = 90

Wellington-Dufferin-Guelph = 78

Eastern Ontario = 38

Durham Region = 224

Simcoe Muskoka District = 135

City of Hamilton = 129

Middlesex-London = 112

Windsor-Essex County = 64

Southwestern = 33

Brant County = 30

Haldimand-Norfolk = 26

Kingston, Frontenac and Lennox & Addington = 22

Sudbury & Districts = 21

Haliburton, Kawartha, Pine Ridge = 20

Leeds, Grenville & Lanark District = 17

Lambton = 17

Hastings Prince Edward = 14

Peterborough = 13

Thunder Bay District = 11

Grey Bruce = 11

Huron Perth = 9

@nowtoronto

Tags corona Coronavirus covid-19 home top story news top news