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Toronto confirms first COVID cases of Brazil, South Africa variant; Ontario reports 1,489 new COVID-19 cases

A person wearing a mask in Toronto

The first COVID-19 cases linked to Brazilian and South African variants of the virus have been reported in Toronto, bringing the total number of confirmed variant cases to 27 in the city.

Toronto Public Health (TPH) says the Toronto resident who tested positive for the P.1 COVID-19 mutation, known as the Brazilian variant, is hospitalized. That person recently travelled from Brazil.

TPH is also reporting the first confirmed case of the B.1.351 mutation known as the South African variant. TPH says that the individual has no recent travel history or any known contact with a returned traveller.

A TPH statement released Sunday afternoon says scientists and medical professionals “are concerned that these variants are more transmissible than the original coronavirus… and the effectiveness of currently authorized vaccines against them.”

Ontario reports 1,489 new COVID-19 cases

Ontario is reporting 1,489 new cases of COVID-19 and 22 deaths, 13 of those in those in long-term care. There have been 317 deaths in the past week. A total of 6,505 people have died from the virus.

Ontario’s seven-day rolling average is down to 1,428 cases. But testing numbers are also markedly down. The province completed 51,658 tests in the past 24 hours, down some 10,000 on average from the previous days.

There are currently 14,799 active cases in the province. Hospitalizations, however, have dropped to below 1,000 to 926, the first time Ontario has seen that since January 3, when the province reached 998 hospitalizations.

However, patients in intensive care have continued an upwards trend for the third consecutive day with 335 patients, along with 233 on ventilators.

Confirmed cases of the UK B117 variant, meanwhile, increased by 10 in the past day, reaching 174 cases.

Ontario has administered 379,184 doses of the COVID-19 vaccine as of February 7. So far, 101,744 people have been fully vaccinated in the province.

To date, there have been 278,207 total COVID-19 cases in Ontario, including 256,903 resolved – up 1,937 from the day before.

Julia Mastroianni

New COVID-19 cases in Ontario on February 7

The following regions reported five or more new COVID-19 cases:

Toronto = 517

Peel = 261

York Region = 121

City of Hamilton = 88

Halton Region = 61

Ottawa = 57

Region of Waterloo = 54

Durham Region = 50

Simcoe Muskoka District = 43

Niagara Region = 35

Middlesex-London = 27

Thunder Bay District = 25

Brant County = 21

Windsor-Essex County = 20

Wellington-Dufferin-Guelph = 18

Chatham-Kent = 17

Lambton = 14

Southwestern = 12

Sudbury & Districts = 10

Northwestern = 9

Haldimand-Norfolk = 5

Haliburton, Kawartha, Pine Ridge
District = 5

Huron Perth = 5

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