Ontario reports lowest new COVID-19 case count in two weeks

The Government of Ontario confirmed 966 new COVID-19 cases on Tuesday morning, which is the lowest since February 17 when 847 were reported.

The province is also reporting 979 newly-resolved cases and 11 additional deaths.

Today’s cases are lower than Monday’s 1,023, Sunday’s 1,062, Saturday’s 1,185, Friday’s 1,258, Thursday’s 1,138, and Wednesday’s 1,054.

Of the newly announced cases, 253 are in Toronto, 223 are in Peel, and 99 are in Ottawa.

Health Minister Christine Elliott said nearly 30,800 tests were completed, and 727,021 doses of the COVID-19 vaccines have been administered.

Ontario is reporting 966 cases of #COVID19 and nearly 30,800 tests completed. Locally, there are 253 new cases in Toronto, 223 in Peel and 99 in York Region.

As of 8:00 p.m. yesterday, 727,021 doses of the COVID-19 vaccine have been administered.

— Christine Elliott (@celliottability) March 2, 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 reverts 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 302,805 COVID-19 cases and 6,997 virus-related deaths.