Ontario sees 331 new COVID-19 cases, 2nd day of week-over-week jumps
CBC
Ontario reported 331 new cases of COVID-19 and seven additional deaths linked to the illness on Tuesday.
Today's case count is up from Tuesday last week, when the province logged 269 infections, an increase of roughly 23 per cent.
It comes after Monday this week also saw a week-over-week increase of about 29 per cent.
Because testing levels in Ontario are generally cyclical, it's often most illuminating to compare the same days of the week when identifying potential trends in pandemic data.
It's been just more than two weeks since Thanksgiving, so it's possible that transmissions from gatherings over the holiday weekend are starting to show up in daily case counts — though it is too early to say for certain if that is responsible for the uptick in newly-reported infections this week.
The seven-day average of new daily cases rose to 371, marking two days of increases after nearly two months of consistent decline.
Here are some key pandemic indicators and figures from the Ministry of Health's daily provincial update:
Patients in ICU with COVID-related illnesses: 136, with 84 relying on a ventilator to breathe.
Tests completed in previous 24 hours: 20,148, with a 1.5 per cent provincewide positivity rate.
Active cases: 3,100.
Death toll: 9,881.
Vaccinations: 13,774 doses of COVID-19 vaccine were administered Monday. About 84.6 per cent of eligible Ontarians, those aged 12 and older, have now had two doses of vaccine.