Ontario shatters previous single-day record with almost 14,000 new COVID cases

Test positivity hit 30.5 per cent meaning almost 1 in 3 tests are coming back positive for COVID — the highest ever seen.

Ontario is reporting 13,807 new COVID cases on Thursday, setting yet another new record for the most cases recorded within 24 hours. The provincial case total now stands at 739,648.

Thursday’s count surpassed the previous single-day high reported just the day before on Wednesday when 10,436 new cases were recorded. There were 8,825 new cases on Tuesday, and 9,418 on Monday.

Case counts due to the Omicron variant have surged over the last couple weeks. For comparison, last Thursday saw 5,790 new cases and the Thursday before that saw 2,421. The seven-day average has now reached 10,328, up from a week ago when it was 4,002.

For the regional breakdown, 3,478 cases were recorded in Toronto, 1,468 in Peel Region, 1,224 in York Region, 939 in Hamilton, 732 in Halton Region, 683 in Ottawa, 628 in Waterloo and 538 in Durham Region. All other local public health units reported fewer than 500 new cases in the provincial report.

Although ICU capacity had previously remained relatively stable, the number of people in ICUs and for general hospitalizations due to COVID-19 is now on the rise following the surge in cases.

The death toll in the province has risen to 10,179 as eight more virus-related deaths were reported.

As of 8 p.m. on Wednesday, there are more than 11.4 million people fully immunized with two doses, which is 88.1 per cent of the aged 12 and older population. First dose coverage stands at 90.7 per cent.

The province administered 197,280 doses in the last day. There are more than 3.3 million Ontarians who have received a booster shot.