Ontario confirms 727 new cases of COVID-19 Friday, 11 more deaths

Ontario reported 727 new cases of COVID-19 on Friday – the first time it has climbed beyond 700 in five days.

More than three-quarters of the new cases, 557, are in individuals who are not fully vaccinated or have an unknown vaccination status, while 170 are fully vaccinated.

The seven-day rolling average of new cases continues to decline, now sitting 655. A week ago it was 724.

Toronto is reporting 144 new infections with Peel Region adding 83 new cases and 54 in York Region.

The province is reporting 173 new school-related cases of COVID-19 – 145 of those in students. Currently there are 750 out of more than 4,800 schools reporting at least one case of COVID-19.

Another 11 people have died as a result of the virus, bringing the provincial death toll to 9,688.

Health officials say 380 people are hospitalized with COVID-19 (excluding ICU) and 193 are in the ICU.

Of hospitalized patients, 269 are not fully vaccinated or have an unknown vaccination status, while 39 are fully vaccinated.

Of the 193 patients in the ICU, 182 are not fully vaccinated or have an unknown vaccination status, and 11 are fully vaccinated.

Health officials conducted 36,855 tests over the past 24 hours, with a positivity rate of 1.8 per cent.

The province administered 46,550 doses of the COVID-19 vaccine on Thursday – the third straight day of more than 40,000 doses. It says 85.6 per cent of Ontarians aged 12 and over have had one dose of the vaccine, and 79.8 per cent are fully vaccinated.