Ibrahim Boran
coronavirus testing
This is Oakville's coronavirus update for Saturday, April 23, 2022, with COVID-19 news from the last week. New outbreaks in both Oakville and Halton are up 50% over the last five days, and while hospitalizations are down in Oakville, they are up across Halton, up by hundreds across Ontario and nearly 1,000 across Canada.
Milton General Hospital is reporting a huge surge in new COVID-19 admissions, accounting for more than half of all active patients in Halton. There were three new deaths in Halton this week, but none in Oakville.
More than 95% of vaccinations now happening in Halton are boosters. Unless there is a dramatic increase of new people getting vaccinated, neither Oakville or Halton will never reach the provincial target of 90% immunization across the eligible population. (Oakville is currently at 86% fully vaccinated for those eligible.)
In better news, cumulative vaccine doses administered in Halton surpassed 1.3 million this week. Over half of Halton's total population has received at least one booster shot.
The Ontario government is extending mandatory mask wearing in hospitals, long-term care and public transit until at least June 11, 2022. Ontario's active cases have decreased slightly, but hospitalizations have increased by more than 500 cases province-wide. Does this mean the sixth wave has peaked?
Canada will make some minor changes to entry requirements beginning on Monday, April 26, including no longer needing a quarantine plan on arrival - but masking on planes and trains is still mandatory. Active cases and hospitalizations continue rising in all ten provinces.
The United States is extending their vaccine mandate to enter the country by land or ferry for at least another few months, and cumulative deaths worldwide reached 6.2 million people this week.
Fully vaccinated travellers, regardless of citizenship, no longer need a negative COVID-19 test result to enter the country. While tests are no longer needed for fully vaccinated travellers (or those under age 4), proof of vaccination is still required for all air, train and cruise ship travel either arriving in or within the country's borders.
**Vaccine booking: Fourth doses (second booster doses) of vaccine are now available for anyone in Halton age 60 and up and any indigenous peoples and those in their household age 18 and up.
Halton continues to book first and second-dose vaccinations for all residents age five and older, plus third-dose boosters for all adults age 18 and up.
First, second and third doses for those 12 and up are available on a walk-in basis throughout the Region. All vaccines approved for use in Canada effectively protect you against COVID-19 and all known variants of concern.
Oakville and Halton COVID-19 update
- New outbreaks in both Oakville and Halton are up 50% over the last five days
- Milton General Hospital is reporting a huge surge in new COVID-19 admissions, accounting for more than half of all active patients in Halton
- There were three new deaths in Halton this week, but none in Oakville
- Cumulative vaccine doses administered in Halton surpassed 1.3 million this week
- More than 95% of all doses administered in Halton last week were boosters (either a third or fourth dose)
- Over half of Halton's total population has received at least one booster shot
- Oakville reports exactly 251 new cases for the second week in a row
Summary of Oakville vaccinations
- 71% of all Oakville residents are fully vaccinated
- 72% of all Oakville have received at least one dose
Changes in figures are since the Oakville News update on April 16, 2022.
- 7 patients at Oakville Trafalgar Memorial Hospital - minus 2
- 15,646 total cases in Oakville (confirmed and probable) - plus 251
- 97 deaths - no change
- 4 active outbreaks - plus 2
Status in Halton
- 72% of all Halton residents are fully vaccinated
- 74% of all residents have received at least one dose
- More than 1.30 million total vaccinations have been administered
- 50% of the population has received three or more doses
Changes in figures are since the Oakville News update on April 16, 2022 or taken from provincial epidemiological reports.
- 40 patients in hospitals across Halton - plus 18
- 46,777 7,519 total cases (confirmed+probable) - plus 742
- 352 deaths - plus 3
- 15 active outbreaks - plus 5
Note: As of Feb. 12, 2022, Halton Region is no longer reporting the number of active cases, new recoveries, or people currently in the ICU. Halton Region does not release the names of businesses with active outbreaks.
Ontario COVID-19 update
- The Ontario government is extending mandatory mask wearing in hospitals, long-term care and public transit until at least June 11, 2022
- Ontario's active cases have decreased slightly; a sign that sixth wave cases may have peaked, but hospitalizations have increased by more than 500 cases province-wide
- The number of open outbreaks in Ontario is still increasing by nearly 100 each week
- 86.10% of all eligible Ontarians (age five and older) are have two doses of vaccine; now only 4% from the provincial goal
Summary of provincial vaccinations
- 12.96 million people have received at least one vaccine dose (87.46% of total pop.)
- At least 12.15 million people are fully vaccinated (81.97% of total pop.)
- 7.39 million people have received a third dose (49.03% of total pop.)
- 32.50 million vaccine doses administered (first, second and third)
Changes are from figures in our last update. The province released this information on April 23, 2022, as of the end of yesterday.
Note: Listed below are only the reported figures from the province and do not include all known active cases. Known active cases are no longer a reliable indicator of COVID-19's spread, given restrictions to testing access.
- 33,620 active cases - minus 2,396
- 1,684 people hospitalized - plus 554
- Over 1.23 million confirmed cases
- Over 1.19 million recovered cases
- 12,629 deaths - plus 81
- Over 1.20 million resolved cases (deaths & recovered) or 97.6%
- 212 people in ICU - plus 27
- 81 people on ventilators - plus 1
- 451 active institutional outbreaks - plus 69
As of Dec. 31, 2021, Ontario stopped reporting new confirmation numbers on how many cases are testing as a variant of concern, including the Omicron variant.
Canadian and Global COVID-19 updates
- Canada will make some minor changes to entry requirements beginning on Monday, April 26, including no longer needing a quarantine plan on arrival
- Active cases and hospitalizations continue rising in all ten provinces
- The BA.2 variant (similar to Omicron) is now the dominant variant of coronavirus in Canada and around the world
- The United States is extending their vaccine mandate to enter the country by land or ferry
- Cumulative cases worldwide now exceed 500 million, deaths exceed 6.2 million
Summary of national vaccinations in Canada
- 33.72 million people have received at least one vaccine dose (87.67% of total pop.)
- At least 31.28 million people are fully vaccinated (81.79% of total pop.)
- 83.43 million total doses administered - plus 570,000
- 18.42 million booster doses administered (48.16% of total pop.)
Changes in figures are since the Oakville News update on April 16, 2022. With the high number of cases nationwide and globally, all numbers are approximate (within 0.1% of the total.)
- 222,339 active cases - plus 19,875
- 6,787 active hospitalizations - plus 829
- 3.66 million confirmed cases to date
- 3.40 million recoveries
- 38,686 deaths - plus 449
- Ranked 81st in global deaths per capita at 100.74 per 100,000 people
U.S. COVID-19 Update
- 80.76 million cumulative cases
- 988,589 deaths - plus 2,817
- 66.0% of the total population is fully vaccinated
- 82.3% of the eligible population has at least one dose
- Ranked 19th in global deaths per capita at 300.15 per 100,000 people
World COVID-19 Update
- 505.81 million cases to date - plus 5.63 million
- 6.21 million people have died worldwide
- At least 11.51 billion vaccine doses have been administered worldwide (source: Our World Data)
- Only 15.2% of people in low-income countries have received at least one dose
The evidence is clear: vaccination is the best way to be protected. Local, provincial, national and international health units all affirm the same data that Canada's approved vaccines effectively protect you from COVID-19 and significantly reduce your risks of getting sick, going to the hospital, and dying from the disease.
Pictured right is a graph from the Halton region showing how dramatically your risk of getting sick or being admitted to hospital is when vaccinated.
Sources:
- Halton Region (and halton.ca/covid19)
- Halton Healthcare
- Joseph Brant Hospital
- HDSB COVID Advisory Page
- The Government of Ontario dashboard
- Public Health Ontario COVID-19 Data Tool
- Government of Canada
- COVID-19 Vaccination Tracker Canada
- The U.S. Centre for Disease Control
- Our World in Data
- Johns Hopkins University Research Centre
- World Health Organization