Public Health Ontario is reporting a record 11,582 new COVID cases today, however, that total is likely an underestimate according to the province.
Increasing COVID case counts driven by omicron have made testing less available, and it has led to the daily totals being an underestimation of actual infections in Ontario. New testing instructions from the province are now limiting testing to certain high-risk groups, leaving symptomatic individuals to isolate but not get a test to confirm whether they have COVID.
The Jan. 5 updates provided by the province's public health agency and the ministry of health also reported the following data:
- 11,669 recoveries and 14 deaths since yesterday's report.
- There are 134,130 active, lab-confirmed cases.
- The new cases reported today include 1,554 unvaccinated people, 386 partially vaccinated people, and 9,255 fully vaccinated people, 387 cases were reported with vaccination status unknown.
- 2,081 people are in hospital testing positive for COVID-19. It's not clear how many people were hospitalized for COVID-19. The province has said changes will be made in how these numbers are reported in the coming days.
- Among the hospitalized COVID patients are 417 unvaccinated cases, 108 partially vaccinated cases, and 1,073 fully vaccinated cases.
- The seven-day average by vaccination status indicated 60 cases per 100,000 unvaccinated people, 50.5 cases per 100,000 partially vaccinated people, and 81.3 cases per 100,000 fully vaccinated people.
- 288 people are in ICU due to COVID-19. Of those, 276 people are testing positive and 12 are testing negative. There are 138 people in an intensive care unit (ICU) on a ventilator because of COVID.
- Included in the ICU cases are 109 unvaccinated cases, 86 fully vaccinated cases, and 14 partially vaccinated cases.
- 11.4 million people in Ontario (77 per cent of the population) are fully vaccinated, and five per cent of the province has one dose of COVID vaccine.
- The province reported 59,137 tests were processed yesterday, resulting in a 28.1 per cent positivity rate.
- Among the new cases reported today, 381 were from Simcoe-Muskoka, 1,294 were from York Region, 2,524 were from Toronto, 109 were from Grey-Bruce, and 1,435 were from Peel.
- Today's new cases include 293 children under five, 554 kids ages five to 11 years old, 966 youth between 12 and 19 years old, 4,788 people between 20 and 39 years old, 3,374 people between 40 and 59 years old, 1,242 people between 60 and 79 years old, and 354 people over 80 years old.
Public Health Ontario has confirmed 828,032 cases of COVID-19 since the start of the pandemic, and reported 683,750 recoveries and 10,252 deaths.
The cumulative average incidence rate in the province is 5,619.9 cases per 100,000 people in Ontario.
Ontario's average seven-day incidence rate from Dec. 26 to Jan. 1 was 657.2 cases per 100,000 people, which increased 69.9 per cent over the seven-day period starting on Dec. 20.
For more on the province's breakdown of vaccination status, click here.
Simcoe-Muskoka
The Simcoe Muskoka District Health Unit reported 2,067 new COVID cases since Dec. 31 in its report published Jan. 4.
Thirty-four Simcoe-Muskoka residents are currently hospitalized with COVID-19, and eight patients are in an ICU.
Since the start of the pandemic, the local health unit has confirmed 23,531 cases of COVID-19 with 17,262 of those cases recovered and 289 cases ending in death.
The seven-day incidence rate for Simcoe-Muskoka between Dec. 26 to Jan. 1 was 587.9 cases per 100,000 people, which is an increase of 92.8 per cent compared to the week of Dec. 20.
In Grey-Bruce region, the incidence rate between Dec. 26 and Jan. 1 was 394.6 cases per 100,000 people, which is up by 66.7 per cent over the week of Dec. 20.
