Ontario reported more than 500 new cases of COVID-19 for a second day in a row as the province expanded eligibility for recall shoots on Saturday.
Provincial health officials recorded 508 new coronavirus infections today, up from 563 yesterday but up from 356 a week ago.
As of this date last year, the province has reported 1,003 new cases.
Earlier this week, authorities reported 331 new infections on Tuesday, 378 on Wednesday and 438 on Thursday.
The seven-day moving average continued to rise to 426 on Saturday, from 353 a week ago.
Of the latter cases, 253 individuals are not vaccinated, 15 are partially vaccinated, 218 are fully vaccinated and 22 have unknown vaccination status.
So far, 88% of eligible Ontarians have received one dose of a COVID-19 vaccine and nearly 85% have received two doses and are considered fully immunized.
Children under 12 are not yet eligible for a vaccine.
Another 370 people have recovered from the virus in the past 24 hours, resulting in 3,533 active cases in Ontario.
The Department of Health today reported three more deaths linked to the virus, which occurred last month.
The ministry also removed three deaths from the cumulative number of deaths from data cleaning.
The number of virus-related deaths in the province remains unchanged from yesterday at 9,896.
Ontario labs have processed more than 30,100 tests in the past 24 hours, producing a positivity rate of 1.9%, according to the ministry.
The public health regions that have recorded the most new cases of COVID-19 today are Toronto (76), Simcoe Muskoka (51), Ottawa (49) and the Region of Peel (46).
There are currently 203 patients with the virus in hospitals across the province and 130 in intensive care units.
Elliott said 115 of the intensive care patients are not fully immunized or have unknown vaccine status and 15 are fully immunized.
To date, there have been 602,595 lab-confirmed coronavirus cases and 589,166 recoveries since January 2020.
On Saturday, the government expanded third-dose COVID-19 vaccine eligibility to nearly three million more Ontarians, including people 70 and older, healthcare workers or essential caregivers in collective settings , people who have received two doses of AstraZeneca vaccine or one dose of Janssen, and indigenous peoples and non-indigenous members of their households.
However, these selected groups can only book an appointment online if they received their second dose at least six months ago.
The government plans to administer booster shoots to the general population in early 2022.
The numbers used in this story can be found in the Ontario Ministry of Health document. COVID-19 Daily Epidemiological Summary. The number of cases for a city or region may differ slightly from what is reported by the province, as local units report the numbers at different times.
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