Public Health Ontario has reported 904 new cases of COVID-19 today and an additional 964 cases from the previous day. The agency did not report yesterday due to the provincial Family Day holiday.
Almost two-thirds of today's new cases are from the Greater Toronto Area, including 320 new cases in Toronto, 154 new cases in Peel and 118 new positives in York Region.
The province is also reporting 1,012 new recoveries and 26 more deaths over the past 48 hours.
The Feb. 16 update provided by the province's public health agency also reported the following data:
- 742 people are currently hospitalized with COVID-19 in Ontario. However, it's important to note, more than 10% of hospitals did not submit data to the Daily Bed Census. The number of hospitalized patients may increase when reporting compliance increase
- There are 292 COVID patients in intensive care units and 201 COVID patients on ventilators.
- The province reported 27,000 tests were completed Feb. 15 and nearly 30,400 on Feb. 14.
- Another 15,024 tests are still under investigation and/or being processed. To date, 10,433,272 tests have been completed in Ontario since the start of the pandemic.
Variants of concern
- The province has reported 309 lab-confirmed cases of the UK variant strain of COVID-19 (B.1.1.7).
- The province has reported nine cases of B.1.351 (also known as the South African variant).
- The province is also reporting one case of P.1 (also known as the Brazilian variant)
- According to Public Health Ontario, there are delays between specimen collection and the testing required to confirm a variant of concern. As such, the reports can change and can differ from past case counts publicly reported.
Vaccine update for Feb. 16:
- As of 8 p.m. on Feb. 15, the province reported 480,377 doses of vaccine against COVID-19 have been administered.
- More than 175,000 people have been fully vaccinated, having received two doses of vaccine, which are to be given a few weeks apart.
Public Health Ontario has confirmed 287,736 cases of COVID-19 since the start of the pandemic, and reported 269,413 recoveries and 6,719 deaths, of which 3,803 were individuals living in long-term care homes.
In Northern Ontario, the breakdown of Public Health Ontario data is:
- Algoma Public Health: 195 cases, rate of 170.4 per 100,000 people. The health unit has reported 193 cases. There are 19 known active cases.
- North Bay Parry Sound District Health Unit: 233 cases, rate of 179.6 per 100,000 people. The health unit has reported 234 cases. There are 31 known active cases. There is one confirmed case of the South African (B.1.351) variant of concern.
- Porcupine Health Unit: 307 cases, rate of 367.9 per 100,000 people. There are 11 known active cases.
- Public Health Sudbury and Districts: 575 cases, rate of 288.9 per 100,000 people. The health unit has reported 567 cases. There are 37 known active cases. There are 3 confirmed variants of concern (VOC) cases, both are the UK (B.1.1.7) strain.
- Timiskaming Health Unit: 91 cases, rate of 278.4 per 100,000 people. The health unit has reported 92 cases. There is one known active case.
- Northwestern Health Unit: 349 cases, rate of 398.1 per 100,000 people. There are 22 known active cases.
- Thunder Bay District Health Unit: 1,190 cases, rate of 793.5 per 100,000 people. The health unit has reported 1,202 cases. There are 159 known active cases.
