by: jacquie miller
ontario reported 2,320 new cases of covid-19 on wednesday.
there were 32 new deaths reported.
that brings the total number of confirmed cases to 499,412 since the pandemic began. the death toll in that period was 8,374.
the hot spot of toronto had the most cases, with 712 more people infected with the virus, followed by peel with 452 cases, york region with 157 cases, durham with 139 and hamilton with 113.
just under 45,700 tests were completed the previous day.
on the vaccine front, ontario announced tuesday that it was halting the use of astrazeneca for first doses because of the rare risk of blood clots.
the decision has left thousands of ontarians who have received one dose of the vaccine wondering what comes next.
more news may arrive later wednesday at a news conference on vaccines scheduled by ontario health minister christine elliott and solicitor general sylvia jones.
based on data reported recently, the risk of blood clots after the first dose of astrazeneca is about one in 60,000, officials said at a news conference on tuesday. that is higher than the blood-clot risk estimate of a month ago of about one out of 125,000 to one in a million.
in ontario, there have been eight cases of the blood-clotting syndrome known as vitt that is linked to the astrazeneca vaccine out of more than 850,000 shots administered, officials said.