With 36 net new fatalities verified on Monday, Ontario’s COVID-19 death toll has officially topped 11,000 people.
According to provincial health officials, there are currently 3,861 COVID-19 patients in hospitals, with 615 in intensive care, up from 578 a week earlier. The province reported on Monday that 3,887 COVID-19 patients were being treated in hospitals.
Because not all hospitals send statistics to the government until later in the week, hospital admission numbers are often lower on Mondays.
The total number of lab-confirmed cases of the novel coronavirus in Ontario has also now surpassed one million, hitting 1,001,455 today.
Another 4,790 new infections were reported today although over the past month, the number of new infections reported each day is a significant undercount of the true total due to restrictions on who is eligible to receive a test.
Of the cases confirmed today, 814 involve those who are unvaccinated, 182 involve those who are partially vaccinated, 3,496 involve people with at least two doses of a COVID-19 vaccine, and 298 have an unknown vaccination status.
Only 20,716 tests were process over the past 24 hours, resulting in a provincewide positivity rate to 18.4 per cent today, down from 24.2 per cent seven days ago. The province has claimed in submissions to the federal government it can process 78,000 PCR tests per day, but has only approached that threshold twice in the past 30 days.
Another 36 net new deaths were logged in Ontario today, bringing the total number of known virus-related deaths to 11,004.
The number of ongoing COVID-19 outbreaks at long-term care homes is now 402, down from 426 last week, according to the latest data released by the province.
After the more infectious Omicron form sent community transmission surging in December, officials warned this week that the number of new cases in Ontario is likely approaching a peak. However, the peak of virus-related ICU admissions is unlikely to occur until February.
“As we deal with these rising numbers, we still have hospitals that are in really difficult conditions,” Ontario Health CEO Matthew Anderson said at a news conference on Wednesday.
“It’s likely that our health-care system will continue to face issues in February.”
Source_ The Canadian Press
