Ontario’s COVID-19 death toll has risen by 58, as hospitalizations continue to decline week after week.
According to the province’s most recent data, 3,019 patients have been admitted to hospitals with COVID-19, down from 3,797 the week before. Five hundred and eighty-seven people are in intensive care units, down from 604 on Sunday.
There are 358 patients who require the use of a ventilator, down from 375 seven days ago.
The province did not release data today on how many patients were admitted for the virus and how many were admitted for other reasons but are testing positive for COVID-19. The vaccination status of hospitalized patients was also not provided by the province today.
Provincial health officials say 55 of the 58 deaths logged today occurred over the past month. This includes 19 more deaths involving residents of long-term care homes in the province.
The number of ongoing outbreaks of COVID-19 in long-term care homes is now 351, down from 407 seven days ago.
Another 3,960 new cases were confirmed by provincial labs over the past 24 hours but recent case counts do not accurately reflect the true burden of infection in Ontario due to testing limitations.
Of those confirmed cases, 623 involved those who are unvaccinated, 185 involved people who are partially vaccinated, 2,807 involved people who have received at least two doses of a COVID-19 vaccine, and 345 involved those with an unknown vaccination status.
With 23,638 tests processed over the past 24 hours, officials are reporting a provincewide positivity rate of 13.5 per cent, down from 18.2 per cent last week.
On Monday, businesses that were forced to close to slow the spread of the highly infectious Omicron variant will reopen at 50 per cent capacity, including, restaurants, gyms, and movie theatres.
Officials say there are indicators that transmission is decreasing in the province, while the health-care system will continue to encounter challenges in February.
During a news conference on Thursday, Ontario’s Chief Medical Officer of Health, Dr. Kieran Moore, said, “We have let our lives be ruled for the last two years in a fair amount of dread, and now we are going to have to rethink some of that thinking.”
“I believe we must begin to recognize that we must learn to live with this infection.”
Source_ The Canadian Press
