Ontario reports a record-breaking 9,571 new COVID-19 cases on Friday

Ontario reported 9,571 new COVID-19 cases on Friday, and six new deaths. Of the new cases, 2,456 are in Toronto.

Case counts for Ontario and Toronto alone have both broken records.

Health Minister Christine Elliott tweeted that 355 of the total 508 new hospitalizations are among unvaccinated or partially vaccinated individuals.

There are 164 patients in the ICU, only 28 of whom have received a full course of vaccination.

164 people are in ICU due to #COVID19. 136 are not fully vaccinated or have an unknown vaccination status and 28 are fully vaccinated.

— Christine Elliott (@celliottability) December 24, 2021

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The province has administered 26,343,050 doses of COVID-19 vaccines. Across the province, nearly 90.6% of those aged 12 and up have received at least one dose, and 88% have received both.

To date, Ontario has seen 676,924 COVID-19 infections and 10,146 deaths.

The province’s Science Table called for a “circuit breaker” on December 16 in order to curb the rapid growth of new cases. They forecast that daily cases could cross 10,000 and ICU admissions could reach 600 by the end of the month without new public health measures and a circuit breaker.

Adalsteinn Brown, co-chair of the Science Advisory Table, said that this “could be the worst wave of the pandemic yet.”