Ontario reports 600 new COVID-19 cases, 6 more deaths

Ontario reported 600new COVID-19 cases on Monday. Of those, 475 were people who have either not been fully vaccinated or whose vaccination status is unknown.

Here are some other key pandemic indicators and figures from theMinistry of Health's daily provincial update:

Tests completed: 19,125.

Provincewide test positivity rate: 3.1 per cent.

Active cases: 6,216.

Patients in ICUwith COVID-related illnesses: 189, with 116needing a ventilator to breathe.

Deaths: six, pushing the official toll to 9,617. Deaths among long-term care residents attributed to COVID-19 surpassed 4,000 for the first time on Monday.

Vaccinations: 21,183,369 dosesof vaccine have been administered to date. Of those, 15,842 were administeredyesterday.More than 84per cent of Ontarians eligible for a vaccine have now received one dose, while more than78 per cent have received two doses.

Meanwhile, Dr. Peter Juni of Ontario's Science Table says health leaders are learning more about emerging COVID-19 variants. He says that overall,the rate at which new variants are emerging is on a downward trend.

This comes after the World Health Organization described the newest variant, mu, also known as B.1.621, as a "variant of interest."

While preliminary data has hinted that the variant could be less resistant to vaccine immunity, Juni said it's "not a headache."

In Ontario, mu makes up less than 1 per cent of all cases of the virus. Juni says mu is far less transmissible than the Delta variant, which continues make up the lion's share of Canada's COVID-19 cases.

"Delta is the one that is unfortunately, for all of us, dominating globally," Juni told CBC Radio's Metro Morning on Monday.

"What we don't want is new mutations of delta in the future."