Niagara Region Public Health confirmed another 48 cases of COVID-19 on Wednesday in another day of increasing numbers compared to previous weeks.
There are 305 active cases in Niagara, with an unchanged number of fatalities associated with the virus, that remains at 373.
Of Wednesday's cases, 4 were found in Thorold residents. In total, the town has 16 confirmed active cases.
A single variant case was reported, bringing the total to 119.
Two new outbreaks were also noted, however the list of retirement home outbreaks remain at three, after Thorold's Cobblestone Gardens was removed from the list yesterday.
In a comment to Thoroldnews.com, the region's acting medical officer of health, Dr. Mustafa Hirji, said that the increase of 51 cases yesterday had no particular cause.
"No focal event that has led to a large number of cases. One day of higher cases (or lower cases) should generally not attract much attention since one-off variations are possible," said Hirji, and continued:
"In order to avoid a third wave and third lockdown, we need to double down on staying home as much as possible, and venturing out only for truly essential reasons. When we are out, we must be rigorous keeping 2 metres distance from others, wearing our face coverings, and always washing our hands."
There is also some indication that the number of variants could be rising sharply in the coming days, as there is right now a few days lag between the time a person gets tested and the screening results return.
The same goes for finding out what strain of the variants have appeared in Niagara, as the sequencing right now has a lag time of up to a month.
"It will be a couple of days before we know if any of today’s 51 new cases are variants or not," Hirji stated Tuesday.
"Sequencing has a lag time of 3 to 4 weeks. As has been observed, we only have sequencing results on our first 4 variant cases even though we have over 100 more in the past 4 weeks."
Ontario cases
Public Health Ontario has reported 1,508 new cases of COVID-19 today (March 17).
Today's report includes 1,488 recoveries and 14 new deaths, including one person between 20 and 39 years old, one person between 40 and 59 years old, four people between 60 and 79 years old, and eight people aged 80 or older. Five of the deaths reported today were residents of long-term care homes.
The province has reported 59 new hospitalizations since yesterday, and 16 new admissions of COVID-19 patients to intensive care units.
The March 17 update provided by the province's public health agency also reported the following data:
- 12,512 active cases, which is up from 12,506 yesterday
- 741 people are currently hospitalized with COVID-19 in Ontario, down from 761 reported yesterday.
- There are 300 COVID patients in intensive care units (up from 292 yesterday) and 190 COVID patients on ventilators (down from 194 yesterday)
- The province reported 49,128 tests were processed yesterday resulting in a 3.5 per cent positivity rate.
- Another 35,201 tests are still under investigation and/or being processed. To date, 11.8 million tests have been completed.
- Of the 1,508 new cases reported today, 542 are from Toronto, 253 cases are from Peel, 107 are from York Region, and 74 are from Simcoe-Muskoka
- There are 69 active outbreaks at long-term care homes, 46 at retirement homes, and 29 at hospitals.
- The new cases reported today include 285 individuals aged 19 and under, 575 people between 20 and 39 years old, 404 people between 40 and 59 years old, 198 people between 60 and 79 years old, and 48 people aged 80 and over.
Variants of concern (Ontario-wide)
- 1,134 lab-confirmed cases of the UK variant strain of COVID-19 (B.1.1.7).
- 47 cases of B.1.351 (also known as the South African variant).
- 34 cases of P.1, which is the variant strain that originated in Brazil.
- Another 9,652 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 58,202 doses of vaccines against COVID-19 administered on March 16, which is up from 51,579 administered on Mar. 15.
- As of 8 p.m. on March 16, the province reported 1,301,334 doses of vaccine against COVID-19 have been administered.
- In total, 290,659 people have been fully vaccinated.
Public Health Ontario has confirmed 321,956 cases of COVID-19 since the start of the pandemic, and reported 302,257 recoveries and 7,187 deaths, of which 3,887 were individuals living in long-term care homes.
The cumulative average incidence rate in the province is 2,165.9 cases per 100,000 people in Ontario.
