ontario reports 650 new covid cases, two deaths
according to a survey, 76 per cent of respondents say they strongly or somewhat support a vaccine passport requirement.
aug 20 2021
3 minute read
photo illustration: vaccine passport app
chris delmas
/
afp via getty images
by: bruce deachman
ontario reported 650 new covid-19 cases on friday, and two new deaths.
health minister christine elliott said in a tweet that 547 of the cases “are in individuals who are not fully vaccinated or have an unknown vaccination status.”
there are 197 covid patients currently in ontario hospitals. there are 135 patients in icu with covid-related illnesses, 104 of them diagnosed with covid. there are 77 patients on ventilators with covid-related illnesses, 56 of them currently with covid.
elliott noted that 130 of the icu cases were among people not fully vaccinated or with an unknown vaccination status, while five are fully vaccinated.
toronto, with 136 new cases, peel, with 113, and york, with 63, were the province’s worst-hit regions.
there were 22 new confirmed cases in ottawa, according to public health ontario, bringing the city’s total to 28,056 since the pandemic’s start. due to different data-collection times, those figures may not match statistics issued later in the day by ottawa public health.
in other health units in the region, the eastern ontario health unit saw its confirmed case numbers go up by one, as did renfrew county. kingston, and leeds, grenville and lanark saw their counts increase by three.
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the new figures raise ontario’s total number of covid cases since january 2020 to 558,101 and its death toll to 9,450. there are 13,897 active cases in the province.
there were 45,748 vaccine doses administered in the province in the 24-hour period ending thursday evening, for a province-wide total of 20,386,811. a total of 9,700,285 ontarians have been fully vaccinated, an increase of 29,364 over the previous day’s total.
latest covid-19 news nationally
a national poll indicates more than three-quarters of canadians favour a system requiring proof of vaccination to access some non-essential services, such as bars, concerts and festivals.
according to a survey conducted by leger and the association for canadian studies, 76 per cent of respondents say they strongly or somewhat support a vaccine passport requirement. that figure is even higher in quebec, which has already announced it will implement such a system, with 81 per cent in support.
the poll, says leger executive vice-president andrew enns, also shows that canadians’ optimism that the pandemic is ending has waned. the latest data suggest that 44 per cent of canadians feel the worst of the pandemic has passed, down from the 70 per cent who said the same thing in late june.
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“i look at these numbers, and i get the feeling canadians are starting to feel a little bit uncertain in terms of where the pandemic is heading,” enns said.
meanwhile, the united states has extended restrictions on non-essential travel at land and ferry border crossings until sept. 21.
the restrictions, which have been in place since march 2020, were set to expire saturday.
the u.s. department of homeland security said in a tweet the measures are being kept in effect to reduce the spread of covid-19, including the delta variant.
canada currently allows u.s. citizens and permanent residents into the country, provided they’ve been fully vaccinated against covid-19.
latest covid-19 news from quebec
in quebec, 527 new covid cases were confirmed friday, and two new deaths.
neither of the deaths was in the outaouais region, where the overall death toll remains at 215.
the new figures bring the province’s overall case count to 383,718 since the pandemic began, and its death toll to 11,279.
there are 87 covid patients hospitalized in quebec, including 30 in intensive care.
additionally, the province administered 40,206 vaccine doses in the most recent 24-hour reporting period, for a province-wide total of 11,985,074.
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with files from the canadian press.
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