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Thestar.com
Dec. 15, 2021

Ontario is reporting another 1,429 COVID-19 cases and five more deaths, according to its latest report released Tuesday morning.

Vaccines

Ontario has administered 99,397 vaccine doses since its last daily update, with 24,584,089 vaccines given in total as of 8 p.m. the previous night.

According to the Star’s vaccine tracker, 12,019,901 people in Ontario have received at least one shot. That works out to approximately 85.8 per cent of the eligible population five years and older and the equivalent of 80.9 per cent of the total population, including those not yet eligible for the vaccine.

The province says 11,334,812 people have completed their vaccinations, which means they’ve had both doses. That works out to approximately 80.9 per cent of the eligible population five years and older, and the equivalent of 76.3 per cent of the total population, including those not yet eligible for the vaccine.

Hospitalizations by vaccine status

The province includes data that reflects hospitalizations and cases by vaccination status. Ontario warns that the new process may cause discrepancies between other hospitalization numbers being collected using a different process, and that the data may not match daily COVID-19 case counts.

The province reports 493 COVID-19 cases were confirmed in unvaccinated people, 33 were partially vaccinated, and 809 cases in fully vaccinated people. The province says even with a highly effective vaccine, cases may occur among vaccinated individuals due to a larger proportion of the population being vaccinated than unvaccinated. Again, the province warns the data may not match daily COVID case counts because records with a missing or invalid health card number can't be linked.

The province says that data on hospitalizations by vaccination status won't be updated on Sundays and Mondays due to incomplete weekend reporting.

COVID in schools

The province is also including data on COVID-19 in schools as part of its daily reporting.

There are 1,019 schools with a reported case of COVID out of 4,844 schools in the province, or 21.04 per cent.

There are 550 new cases reported Tuesday for a total of 10,093 reported school-related COVID cases in Ontario.

The province says 28 schools have closed due to outbreaks or operational considerations. It does not include regional closures in a local public health unit area.

To find out if there are COVID cases at your child’s school, use the Star's tracker tool to search.

COVID testing

The seven-day average is at 1,400 cases daily.

The province says 33,400 tests were completed the previous day, and a 6.6 per cent positivity rate, a high since May 18, 2021.

There are 385 people currently hospitalized with COVID-19 in the province, including 143 patients in intensive care testing positive for COVID-19. There are 98 people on ventilators.

Locally, Ontario reports 239 new cases in Toronto, 128 in York Region, 120 in Ottawa, 103 in Peel Region, 74 in Durham Region and 58 in Halton Region.

COVID in long-term-care

Meanwhile, one more residents in long-term-care has died for a total of 3,829 since the pandemic began, in the latest report released by the province.

Ontario is reporting two more long-term-care homes in outbreak, for a total of 11 or 1.8 per cent of LTC homes in the province.

This data is self-reported by the long-term-care homes to the Ministry of Long-Term Care. Daily case and death figures may not immediately match the numbers posted by the local public health units due to lags in reporting time.

Variants of concern

There are 236 more cases of the Delta variant first detected in India, for a cumulative total of 12,015 cases.

There are 15 more cases of the Omicron variant first identified by South Africa, for a cumulative total of 95 cases.