As the overall pressure on the hospital system continues to reduce following the sixth wave of the pandemic, the number of persons being treated for COVID-19 in intensive care has dropped to its lowest level since December.
According to the most recent Ministry of Health data, at least 1,024 patients with COVID-19 are in hospital, with 151 in Ontario intensive care units.
The number of COVID patients in the ICU is at its lowest level since December 10.
It should be emphasized, however, that approximately 10% of hospitals do not submit occupancy data to the government on weekends.
Overall COVID hospitalizations are now down 12 per cent from this time last week, while the number of people in the ICU is down 27 per cent.
Other public health indicators are also showing steady improvements, weeks after wastewater surveillance data started to point to a drop in overall virus activity.
Over the last 24 hours Ontario’s labs confirmed 1,564 new cases of COVID-19 through PCR testing, compared to 1,934 during the same time period last week and 2,243 the previous week (May 1).
Outbreaks in the handful of settings with widespread access to PCR testing were also down slightly week-over-week. There are now 192 active outbreaks in long-term care homes and 126 in retirement homes, compared to 200 and 162 respectively last Sunday.
Similarly, the number of outbreaks in hospitals has decreased from 104 to 89 over the last week.
““We’re in a better place than we were – I am cautiously optimistic that we’ll have a better summer as the weather improves,” Ontario’s Chief Medical Officer of Health Dr. Kieran Moore told CP24 on Friday.
Source_ cp24.com
