The Department of Health reports that there are 1,126 patients with COVID-19 in Ontario hospitals, up from 1,074 yesterday and 807 a week ago. This marks a 28 percent increase from week to week and a high that has not been seen since February 19, when nearly 1,200 patients were treated.
Forty-six percent of hospitalized patients were admitted for COVID-19 and 54 percent were admitted for other reasons, but then tested positive for the virus.
Meanwhile, 159 of the hospitalized patients are being treated in the intensive care unit, a decrease of seven patients compared to the previous week. The ministry says 70 per cent of ICU patients were admitted there because of coronavirus-related complications and the rest were admitted for other reasons but were found to be positive.
The ministry reported 16 more deaths from COVID-19 today, all of them last month. Three of the deaths were long-term care residents.
As of March 2020, 12,527 people have died from the virus in Ontario.
The provincial laboratories processed more than 21,300 tests in the last 24 hours, showing a positive rate of 17.2 percent, compared with 16 percent seven days ago, according to the ministry.
The county also reported 4,224 more coronavirus infections today, but the number of laboratory-confirmed cases is still underestimated due to test restrictions.
Of the latter cases, 2,418 people received three doses of vaccine, 1,074 received two doses, 482 were not fully vaccinated and 250 had an unknown vaccination status.
The head of Ontario’s COVID-19 Scientific Advisory Board warned yesterday that the province is likely to see more than 100,000 new cases daily and that about 5% of the population is currently infected.
“Based on our sewage analysis, as soon as we reached the peak we were in early January and at that time, we were about 100,000 to 120,000 new cases a day,” Dr. Peter Juni told CP24 on Wednesday.
Juni said the more contagious BA.2 variant leads to some acne in new cases, but said the primary factor may be due to the removal of mask commands in most settings.
Infectious disease specialist Dr. Isaac Bogoch says residents should approach this wave with “a degree of caution”, despite a recent model showing that this wave is unlikely to affect the healthcare system as seriously as the previous wave.
“Exactly because this wave may not be the same size as the wave we just had, we are still in the middle of one. “It still affects the healthcare system and those who work in it, and obviously you still have a long way to go to protect yourself and those around you.”
“Wear a mask, get your vaccine, if you are sick and eligible for outpatient treatment, early access to them will go a long way in keeping people out of the hospital.”
On Thursday, the county opened eligibility for fourth doses of the COVID-19 vaccine to Ontarians aged 60 and over, First Nations, Inuit and Métis and non-indigenous households aged 18 and over.
To date, 90 percent of Ontario residents aged five and over have received one dose of COVID-19 vaccine, 86 percent have received two doses, and 51 percent have received three doses.
The numbers used in this story are in the Ontario Department of Health’s Daily Epidemiological Summary COVID-19. The number of cases for any city or region may differ slightly from that reported by the province, as local units report data at different times.
