Ontario reported 29 net new COVID-19 deaths, bringing the pandemic total to over 13,000, as the ICU burden caused by coronavirus patients fell to its lowest point in a month on Wednesday.
According to the Ministry of Health, all 29 deaths occurred within the last 30 days.
There have been 131 reported deaths in the last week, and 455 in the last 30 days.
Four of the confirmed deaths on Wednesday involved long-term care residents.
Since March 2020, the total number of confirmed deaths in the province has risen to 13,020.
At least 3,235 of those deaths occurred since the Omicron coronavirus variant became dominant in Ontario.
The provincial death total is subject to frequent revisions by public health units and coroners investigating excess deaths in Ontario, including a large revision downward in March 2022 where hundreds of deaths deemed entirely incidental to COVID-19 infection were removed.
In hospitals, the Ministry of Health says overall occupancy fell 27 to 1,528 patients on Wednesday, down from 1,698 one week ago.
Of those, 176 were in intensive care, down 12 from yesterday and 23 from one week ago.
The Ontario COVID-19 Science Advisory Table says most metrics continue to point to a downward trend in COVID-19 transmission in the province, with the wastewater signal declining in all regions and estimate transmission per million residents down since the last week of April.
Of the 1,995 cases confirmed through PCR testing over the last 24 hours, 221 involved unvaccinated or partially vaccinated people, 355 involved people with two doses of vaccine, 1,289 involved people with three doses of vaccine and 130 involved people whose exact vaccine status is not known.
Provincial labs processed 20,465 test specimens in the previous period, generating a positivity rate of 11.3 per cent.
Wednesday’s positivity rate was the lowest the province has seen since March 10.
The Ministry of Health says 30,290 COVID-19 vaccinations were performed on Tuesday.
Of those, 1,208 were first doses, 1,503 were second doses and 2,984 were third doses and 24,495 were fourth doses.
Across all age groups, 84.5 per cent of Ontario residents have had at least one dose of a COVID-19 vaccine, 81.5 per cent have had two doses and 49.1 per cent have three doses.
Source_ The Canadian Press
