Ontario sees 2,176 new COVID-19 cases, expands eligibility for vaccines
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Ontario reported another 2,716 cases of COVID-19 and 19 more deaths linked to the illness on Monday, while the province expanded eligibility for vaccines and said some health-care workers will not wait four months for a second dose.
The cases are the fewest on a single day since April and come as total hospitalizations, admissions to intensive care and the number of patients on ventilators all dropped for a fifth straight day, according to data from the Ministry of Health.
As of yesterday, there were 1,632 people with COVID-19-related illnesses in hospitals. Of those, 828 were being treated in ICUs and 547, or about two thirds, required ventilation, the ministry said.
Ontario’s fiscal watchdog, the Financial Accountability Office (FAO), estimated in a report today that it will take the province about three-and-a-half years to clear the surgical backlog from the pandemic.
The FAO said it expects that by the end of September 2021, some 419,200 procedures will have been cancelled due to COVID-19 and that $1.3 billion will be needed to clear the backlog. The provincial government allocated $610 million specifically to this effort in its latest budget.
Labs completed just 27,175 tests and Public Health Ontario logged a provincewide positivity rate of 9.1 per cent. Testing levels have fallen off on weekends throughout the pandemic, but today’s number is the fewest on a single day since mid-February.
The seven-day average of daily cases fell to 3,017. It has been trending downward since April 17.
Public health units collectively administered 94,903 doses of COVID-19 vaccines yesterday, the health ministry said — the most-ever on a Sunday. As with testing, the province has struggled to hit its vaccination targets on weekends.
Roughly 5.84 million people, or about 49 per cent of all adults in Ontario, had had at least one dose of a vaccine as of Sunday evening.
The province has administered 6,238,778, or just over 88 per cent, of the 7,056,415 doses it has received to date.
The government announced this morning it is expanding eligibility for COVID-19 vaccines on Tuesday to more residents classified as “cannot work from home,” including grocery store and restaurant workers. More people with certain health conditions, such as heart disease, dementia, asthma and diabetes, will also be able to try to book an appointment starting tomorrow.
Meanwhile, health-care workers treating patients who have COVID-19 or are at-risk of contracting the illness won’t have to wait four months for a second dose of vaccine, the province said. That includes those who work in intensive care, emergency departments and first responders.
All Ontarians aged 40 and older will be eligible to book an appointment for a first shot as of Thursday.
Over the weekend, hundreds of pharmacies in designated hot spots began offering shots to anyone aged 18 and up. The province quietly made the change without an official announcement.
The move led to a scramble in many neighbourhoods of Toronto, where people relying on tips found on social media lined up outside pharmacy locations.