Ontario reports 8,825 new COVID-19 cases on Tuesday

Ontario reported another 8,825 cases of COVID-19 on Tuesday.

Health Minister Christine Elliott said as of Tuesday there are 491 people hospitalized with COVID-19, and 187 of them are in intensive care units. The seven-day rolling average for COVID patients in the ICU is 171.

Public Health Ontario reported seven more deaths linked to the illness on Tuesday in its daily epidemiological summary. 

COVID-19 data in the province continues to be limited over the holidays with the Ministry of Health scheduled to update provincial figures on Wednesday to include all data not reported since Dec. 24.

Dr. Kieran Moore, Ontario's chief medical officer of health, was set to make an announcement to update guidance around testing as well as case and contact tracing on Tuesday, but that has been postponed to later this week to review new U.S. isolation guidelines.

"In light of the recently updated guidance from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on shortening the recommended isolation and quarantine period, the Office of the Chief Medical Officer of Health and Public Health Ontario are evaluating this guidance against Ontario-specific evidence," a government spokesperson said in an email.

Meanwhile, the rolling seven-day average of new daily cases now stands at 8,318, more than double the figure one week ago of 3,153.

Health experts warn that the real number of COVID-19 cases is likely to be much higher as a number of hospitals and centres have reached testing limits.

Ontario residents have reported difficulty booking COVID-19 tests amid record-high daily case tallies and the spread of the highly contagious Omicron variant.

Elliott said more than 144,000 doses of COVID-19 vaccines were administered on Monday.

As of Tuesday, roughly 90.7 per cent of Ontarians aged 12 years or older have received one dose and 88 per cent have two doses, according to Elliott.