Ontario reports over 4000 new COVID-19 cases, highest since start of pandemic

The Government of Ontario confirmed 4,249 new COVID-19 cases on Friday morning — the highest count to date, and the first time cases are above 4,000.

The province notes that due to “a data upload catch-up in their system, cases reported on January 7 for Toronto Public Health include additional records from previous days as well as new cases. This catch-up impacts overall case counts for Ontario.”

This is an increase from Thursday’s 3,519 — breaking the record at the time, Wednesday’s 3,266, and Tuesday’s 3,128 cases.

There are 2,738 resolved cases and 26 more deaths.

Of the newly announced cases, 1,382 are in Toronto, 991 in Peel, 427 in York Region, 213 in Niagara and 184 in Windsor-Essex County.

Health Minister Christine Elliott said that over 71,500 tests were completed.

She added, “As of 8:00 p.m. yesterday, more than 87,560 doses of the COVID-19 vaccine have been administered.”

Ontario is reporting 4,249 cases of #COVID19 and nearly 71,500 tests completed. Locally, there are 1,382 new cases in Toronto, 691 in Peel, 427 in York Region, 213 in Niagara and 184 in Windsor-Essex County.

— Christine Elliott (@celliottability) January 8, 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.

Over the past week, health officials confirmed that six 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, there are a total of 208,394 cases with 175,309 recovered, and 4,882 reported deaths.