covid cases jump by 722 in ontario; two new deaths reported
the fourth wave of the pandemic, fuelled by the highly contagious delta variant, has surged rapidly in recent days.
aug 22 2021
2 minute read
file: a nurse treats a patient with covid-19 in an icu.
giorgos moutafis
/
reuters
by: elizabeth payne
ontario reported 722 new covid-19 cases sunday and two deaths as case counts continue to climb after an early summer lull. it is the highest number of new daily infections in the province since the beginning of june.
the fourth wave of the pandemic, fuelled by the highly contagious delta variant, has surged rapidly in recent days. on saturday, the province reported 689 new cases . as recently as last tuesday, the daily case count in the province was 350.
one hundred and forty one people are in intensive care units across the province due to covid, 79 of them, or 56 per cent, are on ventilators.
four hundred and forty four of the new cases were among people who are unvaccinated. forty-four peoples’ vaccination status is unknown and 76 were partially vaccinated. one hundred and fifty eight were fully vaccinated.
one case of covid-19 has been confirmed at the city-run long-term care home peter d. clark, according to a family member. the home has been the site of previous outbreaks and deaths during the pandemic.
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the city of ottawa also reported an oc transpo bus driver has tested positive for covid-19. the employee has been isolating since their last day of work on aug. 19.
the city and ottawa public health are doing contact tracing with family and friends who may have been in close contact.
the employee operated bus 6396 and 4480 on aug. 18, as well as bus numbers 6463 and 8105 on aug. 19.
the latest numbers come as new data from the ontario science advisory table suggests cases will be more than 1,000 a day before children return to school. that projection could increase as case counts climb.
the science table found that people who were vaccinated against covid-19 were 88 per cent less likely to become infected and more than 96 per cent less likely to be hospitalized with covid-19 than people who were unvaccinated, according to recent data from the ontario science advisory table. people who were fully vaccinated were almost 99 per cent less likely to end up in icu.
the data, from aug. 20, supports research that shows covid-19 vaccines protect against serious illness and death, even when there are breakthrough cases in people who are vaccinated.
as of friday, there were 18 new covid-19 cases reported in ottawa, ottawa public health said.
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that brought the total number of cases to 28,093 since the pandemic began.
there were no new deaths and the toll remained at 593.
oph said it knew of 142 active cases of the virus.
there were four people in hospital, one of them in icu.
ottawa updates its numbers each day in early afternoon.
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