Ontario is reporting fewer than 200 new cases of COVID-19 on July 5, the second time in the past week the daily case count has fallen below that mark.
Health officials confirmed another 170 new infections in the past day, including 34 new cases in Waterloo, 27 in Toronto, 18 in Grey Bruce and 13 in Haliburton, Kawartha, Pine Ridge District.
Peel Region, Hamilton and Halton Region each confirmed eight new infections, York Region had seven and Durham Region reported one new case in the past day.
The seven-day average for new infections has dropped to 228 compared with 278 last Monday. Ontario logged 213 new cases on Sunday, 209 on Saturday and 200 on Friday.
One more person has died in the past day, bringing the provincial death toll to 9,215.
Ontario is reporting 170 cases of #COVID19 and over 12,900 tests completed. Locally, there are 34 new cases in the Region of Waterloo, 27 in Toronto, 18 in Grey Bruce and 13 in the Haliburton, Kawartha, Pine Ridge District Health Unit region.
— Christine Elliott (@celliottability) July 5, 2021
Labs in the province completed 12,949 tests in the past day, making for a positivity rate of 1.3 per cent, which is down from 1.8 per cent this time last week.
The number of confirmed active cases in Ontario is 1,967, which is down from 2,506 last Monday.
The Ministry of Health report 228 COVID-19 patients in intensive care units across the province compared with 287 last Monday.
As of Monday morning, more than 67 per cent of all adults in Ontario had one shot of COVID-19 vaccine and more than 38 per cent had two doses, according to Vaccination Tracker.
Out of eligible adults age 18 and older, 78 per cent have had one dose and 46 per cent have had two shots.
As of 8 pm yesterday, Ontario has administered 15,705,866 doses of the COVID-19 vaccine, including 144,795 doses yesterday.
Porter Airlines to resume flights in September
Eighteen months after suspending flights due to the pandemic, Toronto-based Porter Airlines has announced flights will resume on September 8.
On July 5, the airline said in an update that flights will gradually return, starting with routes going from Toronto to Ottawa, Montreal and Thunder Bay. Flights from Toronto to U.S. destinations New York, Boston, Chicago and Washington, D.C. will resume on September 17.
The airline will recall approximately 500 staff in the first phase of flights and more staff will be added in subsequent months as the schedule expands, the airline said.
The news comes a week after Porter’s parent company finalized a deal with the federal government to receive $270.5 million in loads, including $20.5 million that will go toward refunding passengers whose flights were cancelled due to the pandemic.
Ontario expands vaccine eligibility to all youth 12-17
Effective this morning, all youth between the ages of 12 and 17 in Ontario are eligible to book an appointment to receive a second shot of COVID-19 vaccine.
Starting at 8 am, people in that age group can book an appointment online via the provincial portal. There are more than 250,000 appointments at Toronto-run immunization clinics available in July, the city said in a statement.
The province has sped up the rollout as vaccine supply has increased. The province initially booked people for second doses four months after the first but has shortened the interval for Pfizer and Moderna vaccines to 28 days.
Health Canada has only approved the Pfizer vaccine for people aged 12 to 17.
