Today’s count is an 139 per cent jump over the same time last week. The seven-day average of daily cases, which is currently on pace to double every five-and-a-half days or so, climbed to 4,002.
Dr. Kieran Moore, Ontario’s chief medical officer of health, said this week that record-high daily case counts were expected and will likely continue for several weeks.
Positivity rates also continued to spike. Public Health Ontario this morning reported a 16 per cent positivity rate from 68,191 tests, by far the highest level ever seen in the province.
Hospitalizations and ICU admissions are also rising somewhat, though much more slowly than cases and positivity rates.
As of Wednesday, there were 440 people with COVID in hospitals, up from 328 at the same time last week. Similarly, there were 169 patients being treated for COVID-related illnesses in ICUs, up only slightly from 165 last Wednesday.
The Ministry of Health reported the deaths of seven more people with the virus, pushing the official toll to 10,140.
Call for help with booster campaign
Meanwhile, public health units collectively administered 253,258 doses of COVID vaccines on Wednesday. Of those, just more than 233,000 were booster shots.
The province this week issued an appeal to firefighters, dentists and retired doctors and nurses to join the booster shot campaign.
In an effort to ramp up capacity more quickly, the government is temporarily amending regulations to allow more people to administer vaccine doses, the province said in a news release on Wednesday afternoon.
Supervision will be required by a physician, registered nurse or nurse practitioner, or pharmacist who is present at the premises where the vaccine is administered,
the release said.
If you are among the professionals included in the province’s appeal, you can register to help through the Health Workforce Matching Portal .
The government also called on anyone aged 16 and older who might want to volunteer to help in various capacities at vaccination sites.
Those who are interested can register at the new COVID-19 Volunteer Portal.
CBC News
