As the province prepares to relax most public health restrictions on Tuesday, Ontario is reporting another week-over-week decline in the number of COVID-19 patients receiving care in Ontario hospitals.
According to provincial health officials, there are currently 849 COVID-19 patients in hospitals, up from 842 on Sunday but down from 1,064 a week ago. This figure includes 279 intensive-care patients, down from 320 on Monday.
It’s worth noting that not all hospitals submit statistics to the government at the start of the week.
Another three virus-related deaths were confirmed over the past 24 hours.
Officials say 1,315 COVID-19 cases were confirmed by provincial labs yesterday but that number is not an accurate reflection of the true burden of infection in Ontario due to restrictions on who is eligible for testing.
Of the cases confirmed today, 146 involve those who are unvaccinated, 31 involve people who are partially vaccinated, 1,072 involve those who have received at least two doses of a COVID-19 vaccine, and 66 involve people with an unknown vaccination status.
With 12,116 tests processed over the past 24 hours, officials are reporting a provincewide positivity rate of 8.9 per cent, down from 11.7 per cent one week ago. The province has said it has the capacity to process more than 70,000 tests per day but has not surpassed 30,000 tests in a 24-hour period in the past month. Despite the excess capacity, the Ford government has not opened up testing to most members of the general public.
On Tuesday, the province will lift all remaining capacity limits in indoor settings and will scrap its vaccine certificate program, meaning businesses will be able to choose whether to require patrons to show proof of vaccination before entering.
Masking in indoor settings remains in effect in the province.
Source_ The Canadian Press
