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This is the Saturday, July 17, 2021 coronavirus update. Oakville News has a roundup of the top COVID-19 headlines and facts from the past week, with leading news locally, from the province, across Canada and the world. Here are this week's top five headlines:
#1 - More than 50% of all Ontarians and nearly 50% of the total Canadian population is now fully vaccinated against COVID-19.
#2 - For the first time in almost a year, there are zero patients with COVID-19 at Oakville Trafalgar Memorial Hospital.
#3 - Vaccinations rates are slowing everywhere: only 6% of appointments in Oakville are for first doses, showing interest is dropping off fast. Ontario's daily doses are falling, and at current vaccination rates, the USA won't reach herd immunity until July 2022, over a year from now.
#4 - Oakville and Halton's number of active cases are lower than where they were a week ago, but the total has risen four of the last five days this week.
#5 - Ontario entered Step 3 of reopening yesterday, on Friday, July 16, 2021. Dozens more businesses from small to large are now allowed to open - learn about the full list here.
Lastly, the Olympics will certainly be a leading global story next week. Athletes and staff have begun to arrive, and there have been several positive cases even before the first events have started.
**Vaccine booking update: Halton is still booking and rebooking first AND second dose vaccinations for all residents, regardless of when your first dose appointment once. Halton is now in general booking for everyone age 12 and older for first and second doses.
The wait time between the first and second doses of mRNA vaccines (Pfizer and Moderna) is 28 days.
Note: Oakville figures, including Halton vaccine updates, are updated Monday to Friday. Ontario and global cases are also updated on Saturdays.
Oakville and Halton COVID-19 update
Halton no longer updates data on weekends, and data below is from yesterday. There are two more deaths and two more outbreaks in Halton this week, with active cases up in the last few days.
One of the last things Oakville and Halton must do to get back to normal is increase the number of people with first vaccine doses - 80% of the eligible population has at least one, but the daily average of first doses has been less than 400 per day for the last three weeks. The pace of second doses is unchanged this week.
Summary of local vaccinations
- 55% of eligible Halton residents are fully vaccinated
- 80% have received at least one dose
- 685,815 vaccine doses administered
Changes in figures are since the Oakville News update on July 16, 2021, because Halton no longer updates COVID-19 numbers on weekends.
- 20 active cases - plus 1
- Zero patients at Oakville Trafalgar Memorial Hospital - no change
- 67 cumulative deaths - no change
- 5,661 completed (recoveries+deaths) cases - 99.8% of cases
- 1 active outbreak - no change
Status in Halton
- 46 active cases - plus 4
- 5 cases in hospitals across Halton - no change
- 234 deaths - no change
- 18,051 completed (recoveries+deaths) cases - 99.7% of cases
- 4 active outbreaks - no change
Ontario COVID-19 update
Ontario had an exciting change just yesterday: Step 3 of its reopening plan began this week, with dozens of local businesses and thousands across Ontario reopening in everything from sports, town services, art, leisure, in-person dining and everything in between.
Hospitalizations, patients in the ICU and those on ventilators have all gone down. Almost eight million Ontarians (just under 60% of everyone eligible) are fully vaccinated, with that number up by almost one million people this past week.
Summary of provincial vaccinations
- 10.25 million people have received at least one vaccine dose (69.32% of pop.)
- At least 7.72 million people are fully vaccinated (52.24%)
- 17.97 million vaccine doses administered - plus 169,000
Changes are from yesterday’s figures. The province released the information on July 17, 2021, as of the end of yesterday.
- 1,373 active cases - minus 30
- 143 people hospitalized - minus 16
- 176 new cases today
- 203 new recoveries today
- 9,288 deaths - plus 3
- 546,567 resolved cases (deaths & recovered) or 99.7%
- 11 active, ongoing institutional outbreaks - minus 1
Summary of variants of concern (VOC)
- 144,792 confirmed cases of the Alpha variant - plus 11
- 1,465 confirmed cases of Beta variant - no change
- 4,951 confirmed cases of Gamma variant - plus 1
- 3,282 confirmed cases of Delta variant - plus 132

Province of Ontario
Canadian and Global COVID-19 updates
Canada has now administered over 45 million doses of vaccine in all, and late yesterday the Prime Minister announced a target date of mid-August when fully vaccinated Americans might be allowed to travel into Canada. Hospitalizations nationwide are up slightly.
The first case of COVID-19 in Tokyo's Olympic village was confirmed today, with 15 confirmed cases so far connected to the Olympic games reported so far - without any events having begun.
Summary of national vaccinations
- 26.47 million people have received at least one vaccine dose (68.42% of pop.)
- At least 18.55 million people are fully vaccinated (48.67%)
- 45.02 million vaccine doses administered - plus 432,000
Changes in Canadian figures are since the last Oakville News update on July 16, 2021. With the high number of cases nationwide and globally, all numbers are approximate (within 0.1% of the total.)
- 4,708 active cases - minus 53
- 571 active hospitalizations - minus 16
- 1.42 million confirmed and suspected cases to date
- 1.39 million recoveries - plus 393
- 26,492 deaths - plus 7
- Ranked 68th in global deaths per capita at 70.53 per 100,000 people
US COVID-19 Update
- 33.83 million cumulative cases
- 606,190 deaths
- 55.9% of people have one dose (65.3% of those age 12+ who are eligible)
- 48.4% are fully vaccinated (56.6% of those eligible)
- Ranked 21st in global deaths per capita at 185.35 per 100,000 people
World COVID-19 Update
- 188.65 million cases
- 4.06 million people have died worldwide
- At least 3.57 billion vaccine doses have been administered worldwide (source: Our World Data)
Sources: