Emin Baycan / Unsplash
This is the Friday, Oct. 8, 2021 coronavirus update. Active cases are down in Oakville today but higher in Halton Region. Oakville is also home to the most recoveries from any Halton municipality and only one remaining outbreak in town. Local hospitalizations and ICU admissions are up this week.
Earlier this morning, Ontario administered its 22 millionth dose of vaccine. Ontario's active cases are still down today, but most days the change in numbers is less than 0.1% of the total. Lower cases have not led to drops in hospital or ICU admissions in any of Canada's ten provinces.
Dr. Kieran Moore, Ontario's Chief Medical Officer of Health, outlined new guidance for safe gatherings for Thanksgiving and Halloween this year. For both holidays, if everyone in attendance isn't fully vaccinated, masks should still be worn and attendance limited both indoors and outdoors.
Indoor gatherings up to 25 are allowed, and masks are optional if everyone in attendance is both fully vaccinated and comfortable doing so. Masks are encouraged to be incorporated into Halloween costumes and parties should be capped at 25 people indoors. Dr. Moore re-iterated that the smaller the gathering is, the smaller the risk.
New modelling was released today by Dr. Theresa Tam, reporting COVID-19's reproduction number in Canada is below 1.00 for the first time in three months - that means cases are consistently declining nationwide for the first time since July 2021.
NIAID via Foter.com
**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.
**CLICK HERE to book a first or second vaccination appointment at a Halton Region vaccine clinic**
Note: Oakville News updates are published six days a week, sharing new Halton data from Monday to Friday and Ontario, Canada, and globally Monday through Saturday.
Oakville and Halton COVID-19 update
- Active cases are down in Oakville today but higher in Halton Region
- Hospitalizations and ICU admissions are up in town this week
- Only one open outbreak remains in Oakville: at St. Gregory the Great elementary school
Summary of local vaccinations
- 83% of eligible Halton residents are fully vaccinated
- 87% have received at least one dose
- 877,094 vaccine doses have been administered - plus 774
Changes in figures are since the last Oakville News update on Oct. 7, 2021.
- 40 active cases - minus 3
- 3 patients at Oakville Trafalgar Memorial Hospital - no change
- 6,142 total cases (confirmed and probable) - plus 5
- 68 deaths - no change
- 6,034 recoveries - plus 8
- 6,102 completed (recoveries+deaths) cases - 99.4% of cases
- 1 active outbreak - no change
Status in Halton
- 107 active cases - plus 4
- 10 cases in hospitals across Halton - no change
- 19,634 total cases (confirmed+probable) - plus 26
- 242 deaths - no change
- 19,285 recoveries - plus 22
- 19,527 completed (recoveries+deaths) cases - 99.4% of cases
- 4 active outbreaks - no change
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.
School cases
- 15 Oakville schools are reporting cases - no change
- 30 confirmed cases in Oakville schools - no change
- 34 Halton schools are reporting cases - plus 2
- 71 confirmed cases in Halton schools
Ontario COVID-19 update
- After large declines earlier this week, active cases in Ontario are still declining, but by much smaller numbers
- Ontario administers its 22 millionth dose of vaccine
- Chief Medical Officer of Health Dr. Kieran Moore outlines guidance for safe gatherings for Thanksgiving and Halloween 2021: indoor gatherings up to 25 are allowed
- A new program will take effect soon, bringing rapid antigen testing to schools in "high-transmission areas"
- Ontario sets a target for vaccinations: 90% of the eligible population fully protected
- 82.61% of all eligible Ontarians (age 12 and older) are fully vaccinated
Summary of provincial vaccinations
- 11.32 million people have received at least one vaccine dose (76.35% of total pop.)
- At least 10.68 million people are fully vaccinated (72.06% of total pop.)
- 22.00 million vaccine doses administered - plus 30,500
Changes are from figures in our last update. The province released this information on Oct. 8, 2021, as of the end of yesterday.
- 4,517 active cases - minus 58
- 271 people hospitalized - minus 8
- 590,677 confirmed cases - plus 573
- 576,374 recovered cases - plus 621
- 9,786 deaths - plus 10
- 586,160 resolved cases (deaths & recovered) or 99.2%
- 37,118 tests were conducted with a positive rate of 1.8%
- 154 people in ICU - plus 5
- 97 people on ventilators - minus 5
- 20 active, ongoing institutional outbreaks - minus 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.
- 146,485 confirmed cases of the Alpha variant - no change
- 1,503 confirmed cases of Beta variant - no change
- 5,229 confirmed cases of Gamma variant - no change
- 19,080 confirmed cases of Delta variant - plus 101
Canadian and Global COVID-19 updates
- New COVID-19 cases in Canada have a reproduction number below 1 for the first time in months
- Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has announced all federal public employees and RCMP, plus all air and rail travellers, must be fully vaccinated by the end of this month
- 82.32% of all eligible Canadians (age 12 and older) are fully vaccinated
Summary of national vaccinations
- 29.51 million people have received at least one vaccine dose (77.41% of total pop.)
- At least 27.33 million people are fully vaccinated (71.68% of total pop.)
- 56.84 million vaccine doses administered - plus 68,000
Changes in figures are since the Oakville News update on Oct. 7, 2021. With the high number of cases nationwide and globally, all numbers are approximate (within 0.1% of the total.)
- 41,503 active cases - minus 564
- 2,560 active hospitalizations - plus 33
- 1.65 million confirmed cases to date
- 1.58 million recoveries - plus 1,250
- 28,156 deaths - plus 29
- Ranked 81st in global deaths per capita at 74.49 per 100,000 people
US COVID-19 Update
- 43.99 million cumulative cases
- 707,065 deaths - plus 2,832
- 56.2% are fully vaccinated (65.8% of those eligible)
- Ranked 20th in global deaths per capita at 213.35 per 100,000 people
World COVID-19 Update
- 236.13 million cases - plus 448,000
- 4.82 million people have died worldwide
- At least 6.40 billion vaccine doses have been administered worldwide (source: Our World Data)
Sources:
