Variants of concern now account for more than half of all COVID-19 cases in Ontario — and as people grow tired of more than a year of public health measures, officials are concerned about a dramatic rise in infections as they become the predominant strains of the novel coronavirus.
That was the message from Associate Medical Officer of Health Dr. Barbara Yaffe at a provincial news conference Thursday.
There are now 1,563 confirmed variant of concern cases in Ontario, the majority of which are the B117 variant first identified in the U.K. Another 51 are confirmed to be the variant first identified in South African and 54 are the variant first identified in Brazil.
It takes an intensive genetic sequencing process to pinpoint which variant of concern is present in a sample, however, resulting in significant reporting lags.
In reality, at least 15,657 test samples have screened positive for a telltale mutation that indicates the presence of a variant of concern.
Ontario's current seven-day average per cent positivity rate is 4.2. About 50.5 per cent of tests that screen positive for COVID-19 also screen positive for the mutation. That's up from 43.8 per cent just one week ago.
"Daily cases are increasing, hospitalizations are increasing and ICU admissions are increasing," Yaffe told reporters. "As [variants] take over to be the predominant strains, the concern is that the infection rate will increase."
Ontario reported another 2,380 cases of COVID-19 on Thursday, though the Ministry of Health said 280 of the cases are attributable to a "data catch-up process" in the province's system.
Excluding those cases, it is still the highest daily count since Jan. 24, or about two months.
The ministry did not specify when or where those extra 280 cases are from, or why they were missed earlier.
Today's total includes 1,016 cases in Toronto, 294 in Peel Region, 244 in York Region and 152 in Ottawa.
