Ontario reports a drop in new COVID-19 cases with significantly less testing

Ontario is reporting 1,265 new COVID-19 cases and 33 deaths on Monday.

Locally, there are 421 new cases in Toronto, 256 in Peel and 130 in York Region.

It is the third lowest number of daily cases reported since late November. Last week there were lower totals on two consecutive days, but both came with skewed numbers due to a data migration from Toronto Public Health.

The drop in cases does come with a significant drop-off in testing as the province reports over 28,300 tests completed. There were over 50,000 tests completed on Sunday and over 60,000 on days last week.

Testing is usually lower on Monday following the weekend.

The test positivity rate climbs to 4.4 per cent from 2.8 per cent on Sunday. It is the first time in six days the number is over 4 per cent.

So far there have been 219 confirmed cases of the B.1.1.7 variant first detected in the UK and one case of the B 1.351 variant first detected in South Africa.

Toronto Public Health recently confirmed the first case of the variant first detected in the city.

Last week Ontario health officials said that more than five percent of positive COVID-19 cases accrued in late January tested positive for multiple variants, including the UK and South African strains.

The province reported 1,489 cases and 22 deaths on Sunday.

The rolling seven-day average of new cases drops to 1,327. That number has been declining almost every day since Jan. 11 where it peaked at 3,555. The last time the seven-day average was lower was nearly three months ago on Nov. 12.

There is now a total of 279,472 confirmed cases in the province since the onset of the pandemic with 6,538 deaths. Of the confirmed cases 14,331 are active and 258,603 have been resolved.

Active cases have dropped to the lowest point since November.

There are 1,700 more resolved cases.

As of 8:00 p.m. Thursday, 386,171 doses of the COVID-19 vaccine have been administered and 106,163 people have been fully vaccinated.

Among the active cases, 901 people are currently in the hospital. Hospitalizations are down over 250 from one week ago.

Among the hospitalized, 335 are in the ICU and 226 are on ventilators.