Ontario reports almost 6,000 new COVID-19 cases since the start of 2021

The Government of Ontario confirmed 5,839 new COVID-19 cases over the last two days.

The province reported 2,476 cases on January 1, and 3,363 on Saturday – the highest number since the pandemic began.

There have been 2,054 more resolved cases and 44 virus-related deaths.

Ontario is reporting cases from New Year’s Day this morning due to the public holiday.

Today’s numbers are only the second time that daily case counts have risen above 3,000 in the province. The first time was on Thursday, when 3,328 cases were reported.

Daily case counts have remained above 2,000 for weeks, with Wednesday’s 2,923, Tuesday’s 2,553, Monday’s 1,939, Sunday’s 2,005, Saturday’s 2,142, and Friday’s 2,159.

Of the newly announced cases, 713 are in Peel, 700 are in Toronto, 395 are in York Region, 226 are in Windsor-Essex County, and 171 are in Hamilton.

Health Minister Christine Elliott said 61,401 tests were completed on January 1, and 70,570 on December 31.

Ontario is reporting 3,363 cases of #COVID19 today, and 2,476 cases reported yesterday. Today, there are 713 new cases in Peel, 700 in Toronto, 395 in York Region, 226 in Windsor-Essex County and 171 in Hamilton.

— Christine Elliott (@celliottability) January 2, 2021

Ontario is currently under a province-wide lockdown that will be in effect in northern Ontario for 14 days, and the southern part of the province for 28 days. The restrictions will be evaluated throughout the lockdown, rather than when they are set to expire.

Health officials confirmed that the three cases of the COVID-19 UK variant have been found in Ontario. The fast-spreading virus mutation was first detected in a couple from Durham Region.

Although the new variant of the virus has been found to spread quicker, there is no evidence to suggest that approved vaccines will be any less effective against it.

To date, Ontario has seen a total of 187,998 COVID-19 cases.