Martin Sanchez
COVID-19 Update
This is the Thursday, December 9, 2021 coronavirus update. Two more Oakville Catholic elementary schools have declared new COVID-19 outbreaks today, bringing the total to three. St. Gregory the Great and St. Marguerite D'Youville each have two new, confirmed cases.
Both Oakville and Halton also report large increases of active cases. Vaccination in Halton is trending upwards now that children between the ages of 5 and 11 are eligible to be vaccinated, with the region averaging more than 1,000 doses being administered daily.
Nearly 1,300 new cases are reported in Ontario, which is the highest one-day total in the province since May 24, 2021. Dr. Kieran Moore postponed a scheduled press conference this afternoon to tomorrow instead, while the COVID-19 Science Advisory Table has recommended schools begin weekly rapid testing.
Modelling from the same Advisory Table says even without cases from the new Omicron variant, cases in Ontario are expected to keep rising for the next two months. Active cases in the province have still risen by over 50% in the last two weeks.
New Brunswick today reported its highest one-day total of new cases for the entire pandemic, and active cases are up today in all ten provinces.
Pfizer and BioNTech have released preliminary data how their vaccine responds to the Omicron variant, citing a third dose as most effective (though two doses provide good protection.) Global cumulative cases reach 265 million people and Canada's recoveries reach 1.75 million.
**Vaccine booking update: Halton is now booking first and second dose vaccinations for all residents age 5 and older, plus third dose boosters for some groups. All appointments in Halton need to be pre-booked.
All vaccines approved for use in Canada effectively protect you against COVID-19 and all known variants of concern.
Note: Oakville News updates are published five days a week, sharing new Halton data from Tuesday to Friday and Ontario, Canada, and globally Monday through Saturday.
Oakville and Halton COVID-19 update
- Two Oakville Catholic elementary schools have declared new COVID-19 outbreaks today: St. Gregory the Great and St. Marguerite D'Youville have two new, confirmed cases each
- Both Oakville and Halton report large increases of active cases
- Halton Region has its first two confirmed cases of the Omicron variant
- The case reproduction number in Halton (how many cases become new cases) has dropped for the second time this week to 1.09
- Over 90% of all COVID-19 cases in Halton since September 1, 2021 have been in unvaccinated residents
Summary of local vaccinations
- 75% of all Halton residents are fully vaccinated
- 77% of all residents have received at least one dose
- 916,335 vaccine doses have been administered - plus 1,101
Changes in figures are since the Oakville News update on Dec. 8, 2021.
- 72 active cases - plus 4
- 2 patients at Oakville Trafalgar Memorial Hospital - plus 1
- 6,523 total cases (confirmed and probable) - plus 13
- 69 deaths - no change
- 6,382 recoveries - plus 9
- 6,451 completed (recoveries+deaths) cases - 99.0% of cases
- 3 active outbreaks - plus 2
Status in Halton
- 258 active cases - plus 22
- 4 cases in hospitals across Halton - plus 2
- 20,818 total cases (confirmed+probable) - plus 49
- 245 deaths - plus 1
- 20,315 recoveries - plus 26
- 20,559 completed (recoveries+deaths) cases - 98.8% of cases
- 10 active outbreaks - plus 2
School cases
- Oakville - 13 total cases across 10 different schools
- Halton - 54 total cases across 31 different schools
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
- Nearly 1,300 new cases are reported today - the highest one-day total since May 24, 2021
- Ontario's COVID-19 Science Advisory Table recommends schools begin weekly rapid testing
- Dr. Kieran Moore's scheduled press conference today has been postponed to tomorrow
- Beginning Monday, Dec. 13, anyone in the province age 50 and older can receive a booster dose
- Ontario's set vaccination target is 90% of the eligible population to be fully protected
- 80.14% of all eligible Ontarians (age 5 and older) are fully vaccinated
Summary of provincial vaccinations
- 11.94 million people have received at least one vaccine dose (80.59% of total pop.)
- At least 11.31 million people are fully vaccinated (76.29% of total pop.)
- 24.22 million vaccine doses administered (first, second and third)
Changes are from figures in our last update. The province released this information on Dec. 9, 2021, as of the end of yesterday.
- 8,661 active cases - plus 310
- 309 people hospitalized - minus 14
- 627,611 confirmed cases - plus 1,290
- 608,896 recovered cases - plus 970
- 10,054 deaths - plus 9
- 618,950 resolved cases (deaths & recovered) or 98.6%
- 40,242 tests were conducted with a positive rate of 3.5%
- 155 people in ICU - no change
- 94 people on ventilators - minus 3
- 21 active, ongoing institutional outbreaks - plus 2
Note: institutional outbreaks count only hospitals, retirement homes and long-term care homes.
Summary of School Cases
- 9,111 total cases in schools - plus 227
- 8,090 student cases - plus 198
- 877 staff cases - plus 24
- 884 schools with confirmed cases - 18.25% of those in Ontario
- 13 schools closed - plus 3
Summary of Variants of Concern (VOC)
These numbers are for the number of people who tested positive and further testing confirmed their specific case is one of a particular variant of concern. All totals are only for cases since November 1, 2021.
- No new cases of the Alpha, Beta or Gamma variants
- 9,710 confirmed cases of Delta variant - plus 528
- 40 confirmed cases of the Omicron variant - plus 9
Canadian and Global COVID-19 updates
- New Brunswick reports today it's highest one-day total of new cases for the entire pandemic
- Pfizer-BioNTech release preliminary research data how their vaccine works with the Omicron variant
- Even without Omicron, cases are expected to keep rising for the next two months
- All air arrivals to Canada from any country (except the U.S.) must now take a COVID-19 test upon arrival, regardless of vaccination status
- Global cumulative cases reach 265 million people
Summary of national vaccinations
- 31.06 million people have received at least one vaccine dose (81.21% of total pop.)
- At least 29.16 million people are fully vaccinated (76.24% of total pop.)
- 62.67 million total doses administered - plus 166,800
- 2.44 million booster doses administered
Changes in figures are since the Oakville News update on Dec. 8, 2021. With the high number of cases nationwide and globally, all numbers are approximate (within 0.1% of the total.)
- 32,022 active cases - plus 2,336
- 1,492 active hospitalizations - minus 22
- 1.82 million confirmed cases to date
- 1.75 million recoveries - plus 2,820
- 29,863 deaths - plus 24
- Ranked 84th in global deaths per capita at 79.31 per 100,000 people
US COVID-19 Update
- 49.45 million cumulative cases
- 790,766 deaths - plus 1,126
- 64.3% of the eligible population is fully vaccinated
- Ranked 20th in global deaths per capita at 239.98 per 100,000 people
World COVID-19 Update
- 267.18 million cases - plus 644,900
- 5.27 million people have died worldwide
- At least 8.32 billion vaccine doses have been administered worldwide (source: Our World Data)
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