This is the Tuesday, August 31, 2021 coronavirus update. For the last day in a month of continually rising cases, some places report drops in active cases today.
Active cases are down today in Oakville but up across Halton, including one new outbreak. Oakville Town Council will consider a proposal of mandating vaccines for all staff and members of council at a special meeting in two weeks.
Ontario saw its first noticeable drop in active cases today for the first time since early July. Unfortunately, it also added more than 100 hospitalizations today.
Premier Doug Ford and his cabinet are continuing to debate a plan for a province-wide vaccine passport system. Ford has not spoken publicly about COVID-19 in more than a month, and today's public briefing with Dr. Kieran Moore was cancelled last-minute due to "the government’s ongoing work on a proof of vaccination certificate," said in a statement.
Active cases in Canada have, yet again, grown to more than 30,000. The CDC is advising Americans not to travel to Canada due to its risk of contracting COVID-19, despite transmission being nearly 100 times higher in the U.S.
**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 effectively protect 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 shares Halton's new data from Monday to Friday and Ontario, Canada, and global updates daily.
Oakville and Halton COVID-19 update
- The Town of Oakville will propose mandatory vaccinations for all town employees and members of council at an upcoming meeting
- Despite six weeks of consecutive rising case numbers, first vaccine dose intake has not changed in Oakville or Halton
- Second vaccine doses administered have now matched first doses given in Halton (because some Halton residents got first doses in another region)
Summary of local vaccinations
- 79% of eligible Halton residents are fully vaccinated
- 84% have received at least one dose
- 841,299 vaccine doses have been administered - plus 1,762
Changes in figures are since the last Oakville News update yesterday, on August 30, 2021.
- 24 active cases - minus 5
- 1 patient at Oakville Trafalgar Memorial Hospital - no change
- 5,856 total cases (confirmed and probable) - plus 5
- 67 deaths - no change
- 5,765 recoveries - plus 10
- 5,832 completed (recoveries+deaths) cases - 99.3% of cases
- Zero active outbreaks
Status in Halton
- 119 active cases - plus 5
- 12 cases in hospitals across Halton - minus 1
- 18,737 total cases (confirmed+probable) - plus 25
- 238 deaths - no change
- 18,380 recoveries - plus 20
- 18,618 completed (recoveries+deaths) cases - 99.3% of cases
- 4 active outbreaks - plus 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
- Ontario reports a large drop in active cases for the first time in weeks
- Premier Doug Ford and his cabinet are continuing to debate and agree on a plan for a province-wide vaccine passport system
- Today's public briefing for the province was cancelled last-minute due to "the government’s ongoing work on a proof of vaccination certificate"
- Premier Ford has not spoken publicly about COVID-19 in more than a month
- Ontario adds more than 100 hospital cases just today
- 83.63% of all eligible Ontarians (age 12 and older) have received one or more doses of vaccine
Summary of provincial vaccinations
- 10.81 million people have received at least one vaccine dose (73.12% of total pop.)
- At least 9.94 million people are fully vaccinated (67.23%)
- 20.75 million vaccine doses administered - plus 31,200
Changes are from figures in our last update. The province released this information on August 31, 2021, as of the end of yesterday.
- 5,868 active cases - minus 160
- 336 people hospitalized - plus 110
- 565,550 confirmed cases - plus 525
- 550,179 recovered cases - plus 680
- 9,503 deaths - plus 5
- 559,682 resolved cases (deaths & recovered) or 98.9%
- 19,643 tests conducted with a positive rate of 3.1%
- 158 people in ICU - minus 2
- 93 people on ventilators - no change
- 18 active, ongoing institutional outbreaks - plus 2
Summary of variants of concern (VOC)
These numbers are for the number of people who tested positive and further testing has confirmed their specific case is one of a particular variant of concern in Ontario.
- 146,341 confirmed cases of the Alpha variant - plus 12
- 1,501 confirmed cases of Beta variant - plus 1
- 5,222 confirmed cases of Gamma variant - no change
- 9,779 confirmed cases of Delta variant - plus 80
Canadian and Global COVID-19 updates
- Active cases in Canada have, yet again, grown to more than 30,000
- British Columbia is instituting new restrictions effective immediately to address spike in cases
- The head of the CDC and Prevention says the U.S. is only telling Americans to "reconsider travel" to Canada mainly for the benefit of those not yet vaccinated against COVID-19
- More than 4.5 million people have died worldwide
- 84.09% of all eligible Canadians (age 12 and older) have received one or more doses of vaccine
Summary of national vaccinations
- 27.91 million people have received at least one vaccine dose (73.22% of total pop.)
- At least 25.40 million people are fully vaccinated (66.61%)
- 53.32 million vaccine doses administered - plus 132,000
Changes in figures are since the Oakville News update on August 30, 2021. With the high number of cases nationwide and globally, all numbers are approximate (within 0.1% of the total.)
- 30,977 active cases - plus 55
- 1,249 active hospitalizations - plus 133
- 1.49 million confirmed and suspected cases to date
- 1.43 million recoveries - plus 1,318
- 26,926deaths - plus 17
- Ranked 72nd in global deaths per capita at 71.71 per 100,000 people
US COVID-19 Update
- 39.11 million cumulative cases
- 637,385 deaths - plus 1,370
- 61.8% of people have one dose (72.2% of those age 12+ who are eligible)
- 52.4% are fully vaccinated (61.4% of those eligible)
- Ranked 24th in global deaths per capita at 194.23 per 100,000 people
- The FDA has given full approval of the Pfizer vaccine
World COVID-19 Update
- 216.86 million cases - plus 521,000
- 4.50 million people have died worldwide
- At least 5.26 billion vaccine doses have been administered worldwide (source: Our World Data)
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