Ontario reported 1,468 new cases of COVID-19 and 11 more deaths on March 13.
Today’s count is up from the 1,371 new infections confirmed on Friday. The province reported 1,092 cases on Thursday, 1,316 on Wednesday and 1,185 on Tuesday.
The seven-day moving average for new infections – which public health officials consider a more accurate indication of virus spread – has risen to 1,337 compared with 1,035 one week ago.
Medical labs completed more than 58,400 tests in the past day, making for a positivity rate of 2.9 per cent, which is up from 2.3 per cent a week ago.
During a data modelling presentation at Queen’s Park on Thursday, public health officials warned that the decline in COVID-19 cases has “stalled” now that lockdown restrictions have been loosened across the province and fast-spreading variant cases are on the rise.
On Friday, the Ford government announced three regions would be moving up in the colour-coded COVID-19 response framework on Monday. Sudbury also entered the grey lockdown level.
Thunder Bay, Toronto and Peel Region are also in the grey lockdown level. Lambton – the region that includes Sarnia – will enter the grey zone on Monday.
The Greater Toronto Area continued reporting the highest daily case counts on Saturday.
“Locally, there are 381 new cases in Toronto, 226 in Peel and 168 in York Region,” Health Minister Christine Elliott said on Twitter, adding that Ontario had administered 1,116,496 doses of COVID-19 vaccines as of 8 pm last night.
To date, 239,198 COVID-19 vaccine doses have been administered in Toronto.
Ontario is reporting 1,468 cases of #COVID19 and over 58,400 tests completed. Locally, there are 381 new cases in Toronto, 226 in Peel and 168 in York Region.
— Christine Elliott (@celliottability) March 13, 2021
As of 8:00 p.m. yesterday, 1,116,496 doses of the COVID-19 vaccine have been administered.
Hospitalizations have risen by 13 to 689, while intensive care admissions are down by seven to 275. There are 175 COVID-19 patients on ventilators in Ontario hospitals.
Officials have also said vaccines have substantially reduced fatalities in long-term care homes. Only one of today’s 11 deaths was a long-term care home resident. The provincial death toll now stands at 7,138.
Twenty more cases have confirmed positive for variants of concern, which spread more quickly and lead to more severe illness. There have now been a total of 1,101 confirmed variant cases.
Of those cases, 288 are in Toronto. Another 2,979 test specimens have screened positive for variants in Toronto but the precise mutation has not yet been identified.
New COVID-19 cases in Ontario on March 13
The following regions reported five or more new COVID-19 cases:
Toronto = 381
Peel Region = 226
York Region = 168
Ottawa = 82
Thunder Bay = 66
Region of Waterloo = 51
Sudbury & Districts = 46
Halton Region = 46
Simcoe Muskoka = 43
Windsor-Essex = 40
Durham Region = 38
Middlesex-London = 36
City of Hamilton = 36
Niagara Region = 31
Southwestern = 25
Brant County = 24
Lambton = 22
Chatham-Kent = 18
Wellington-Dufferin-Guelph = 17
Leeds, Grenville & Lanark = 15
Northwestern = 13
Peterborough = 13
Eastern Ontario = 12
Haliburton, Kawartha, Pine Ridge = 6
