This is the Saturday, August 14, 2021 coronavirus update. With active cases rising at sharp rates, the fourth wave has begun. Next week is widely expected to include the announcement of a federal election in the pandemic, plus more rules about vaccine passports across Canada.
Here are the five leading COVID-19 stories from this week:
#1 - The fourth wave has officially begun, with the term being used this week at the regional, provincial and federal levels.
#2 - Active cases in both Oakville and in Halton Region have doubled in the last ten days. These are the fastest and largest local daily increases since mid-April 2021, and the increase in Ontario and Canada-wide is even worse, with a reproduction rate above 1.55 and growing.
#3 - The Delta variant is spreading faster than ever before. Ontario confirmed almost 1,000 new cases this week. That's not just a new record: it's also the 6,000th cumulative case of the Delta variant to date.
#4 - Vaccine efforts are definitively slowing down both in Halton Region and across Ontario; there are fewer first-dose appointments happening every day, despite both the province being below the minimum 75% coverage (of those eligible) to phase out COVID-19 restrictions and a minimum 90% coverage to reach potential herd immunity.
#5 - Fully vaccinated, non-essential travellers from the United States are now allowed into Canada. Cases in the U.S. and around the world are exploding - the United States is reporting over 120,000 cases per day this week.
Lastly, in an optimistic update, total doses administered worldwide reached 4.5 billion doses this week.
**Vaccine booking update: Halton is now booking first AND second dose vaccinations for all residents age 12 and older. Halton is also now offering same-day, walk-in appointments at multiple locations.
All vaccines approved for use in Canada are highly effective in protecting you against COVID-19 and all known variants of concern, including the Delta variant.
Note: Oakville figures, including Halton vaccine updates, are again being published seven days a week. Effective August 9, 2021, Oakville News will share Halton's new data from Monday to Friday and Ontario, Canada and global updates daily.
Oakville and Halton COVID-19 update
- Halton Region does not update numbers on weekends
- Active cases in both Oakville and in Halton Region have doubled in the last ten days
- More than 400,000 people in Halton, as of yesterday, are fully vaccinated
- Today marks the one year anniversary of One Pandemic Day, a documentary about COVID-19 in Oakville
- A local writer makes their case for the immediate implementation of vaccine passports
Summary of local vaccinations
- 75% of eligible Halton residents are fully vaccinated
- 83% have received at least one dose
- 812,630 vaccine doses have been administered - plus 2,051
Changes in figures are since the Oakville News update on August 12, 2021.
- 30 active cases - plus 4
- 2 patients at Oakville Trafalgar Memorial Hospital - plus 1
- 5,742 total cases (confirmed and probable) - plus 11
- 67 deaths - no change
- 5,645 recoveries - plus 7
- 5,712 completed (recoveries+deaths) cases - 99.6% of cases
- 1,854 variant cases - plus 2
- No active outbreaks
Status in Halton
- 109 active cases - plus 8
- 5 cases in hospitals across Halton - plus 1
- 18,374 total cases (confirmed+probable) - plus 22
- 237 deaths - no change
- 18,028 recoveries - plus 14
- 18,265 completed (recoveries+deaths) cases - 99.6% of cases
- 6,139 variant cases - plus 18
- 3 active outbreaks - minus 1
Note: Halton Region combines its recovery count into one number with probable, now closed cases. This total includes some cases that were not coronavirus recoveries. Halton Region does not publish the names of workplaces with active outbreaks.
Ontario COVID-19 update
- Active cases in Ontario today jumped by its greatest increase in four months
- Ontario's reproduction number for new cases is now 1.55, meaning cases are doubling every 8-11 days (and in fact, in the last eight days they have)
- Ontario confirms its 6,000th cumulative case of the Delta variant
- 82.07% of all eligible Ontarians (age 12 and older) have received one or more doses of vaccine
Summary of provincial vaccinations
- 10.61 million people have received at least one vaccine dose (71.77% of total pop.)
- At least 9.53 million people are fully vaccinated (64.45%)
- 20.14 million vaccine doses administered - plus 50,300
Changes are from figures over the last two days. The province released this information on August 14, 2021, as of the end of yesterday.
- 3,416 active cases - plus 316
- 136 people hospitalized - plus 13
- 555,050 confirmed cases - plus 578
- 552,206 recovered cases - plus 260
- 9,418 deaths - plus 2
- 551,624 resolved cases (deaths & recovered) or 99.4%
- 23,468 tests conducted with a positive rate of 2.4%
- 82 people in ICU (that are COVID-19 positive) - no change
- 49 people on ventilators (COVID-19 positive) - no change
- 8 active, ongoing institutional outbreaks - plus 1
Note: There have been discrepancies with ICU and hospitalization numbers in Ontario for almost two months; some days, the number of people in hospital is less than that of those in the ICU, which is impossible.
The aggressively fluctuating numbers of patients in hospitals are likely the cause, with those in ICU easier to track province-wide. Until the province resolves these errors, Oakville News reports only on ICU and ventilator patients still testing positive for COVID-19 and not those recovering from the virus but still in ICU care.
Summary of variants of concern (VOC)
- 145,666 confirmed cases of the Alpha variant - plus 10
- 1,493 confirmed cases of Beta variant - no change
- 5,178 confirmed cases of Gamma variant - plus 2
- 6,119 confirmed cases of Delta variant - plus 100
Canadian and Global COVID-19 updates
- Almost 90% of all new COVID-19 cases are among the unvaccinated
- Canadian active cases are up more than 60% in the last seven days
- A protest is staged in Montreal over Quebec's upcoming vaccine passport program
- 82.37% of all eligible Canadians (age 12 and older) have received one or more doses of vaccine
Summary of national vaccinations
- 27.37 million people have received at least one vaccine dose (71.79% of total pop.)
- At least 24 million people are fully vaccinated (63.01%)
- 51.40 million vaccine doses administered - plus 148,000
Changes in figures are since the Oakville News update on August 13, 2021. With the high number of cases nationwide and globally, all numbers are approximate (within 0.1% of the total.)
- 16,478 active cases - plus 1,191
- 600 active hospitalizations - plus 17
- 1.45 million confirmed and suspected cases to date
- 1.40 million recoveries - plus 1,038
- 26,700 deaths - plus 6
- Ranked 74th in global deaths per capita at 70.91 per 100,000 people
US COVID-19 Update
- 36.41 million cumulative cases
- 617,787 deaths - plus 689
- 59.4% of people have one dose (69.4% of those age 12+ who are eligible)
- 50.5% are fully vaccinated (59.1% of those eligible)
- Ranked 23rd in global deaths per capita at 189.20 per 100,000 people
World COVID-19 Update
- 205.38 million cases
- 4.33 million people have died worldwide
- At least 4.66 billion vaccine doses have been administered worldwide (source: Our World Data)
- 23.4% of the world's population is fully vaccinated
Sources: