Ontario reports lowest COVID-19 case count in six days as testing drops

The Government of Ontario confirmed 1,023 new COVID-19 cases on Monday morning, a slight drop from the 1,062 reported on Sunday.

The province is also reporting 939 newly-resolved cases and six additional deaths.

Today’s cases are lower than Saturday’s 1,185, Friday’s 1,258, Thursday’s 1,138, Wednesday’s 1,054, and Monday’s 1,058, but higher than Tuesday’s 975.

Of the newly announced cases, 280 are in Toronto, 182 are in Peel, and 72 are in Ottawa.

Health Minister Christine Elliott said over 35,000 tests were completed, and 704,695 doses of the COVID-19 vaccines have been administered.

Ontario is reporting 1,023 cases of #COVID19 and over 35,000 tests completed. Locally, there are 280 new cases in Toronto, 182 in Peel and 72 in Ottawa.

As of 8:00 p.m. yesterday, 704,695 doses of the COVID-19 vaccine have been administered.

— Christine Elliott (@celliottability) March 1, 2021

On February 19, Premier Doug Ford announced that the Stay at Home orders would be extended for Toronto, Peel Region, and North Bay-Parry Sound until at least March 8. York Region moved into the Red-Control zone on February 22.

Toronto and Peel’s top doctors had previously asked the province to extend the orders due to the emerging COVID-19 variants.

Now, 31 regions have reverted to the updated colour-coded system.

The province announced on Friday that as of 12:01 am on March 1, nine regions will be moved to different levels of the reopening framework.

The changes include activating an “emergency brake” for Thunder Bay District and Simcoe-Muskoka District, which would revert the health units back into the Grey-Lockdown zone in order to interrupt virus transmission.

Cases of the UK, South African, and Brazilian COVID-19 variants have been confirmed in Ontario.

Health officials have called the fast-spreading UK mutation a “significant threat,” and evidence is still emerging on how the vaccines work against the new variants.

To date, Ontario has seen 301,839 COVID-19 cases and 6,986 virus-related deaths.