Ontario COVID-19 hospitalizations near 1,700 as 16 new deaths reported

Ontario officials are reporting 1,699 people in hospital with COVID-19 and 16 new deaths related to the virus Tuesday.

This marks a slight increase in hospitalizations over Monday when 1,423 patients were reported seeking care, although not all hospitals report data over the weekend.

Of Tuesday’s hospitalizations, 251 patients are unvaccinated and 999 are fully vaccinated. The vaccination status of the remaining patients is unknown.

Forty-two per cent of patients hospitalized Tuesday were admitted for COVID-19, while the remaining 58 per cent tested positive after an unrelated admission. In ICUs, those percentages are 66 per cent and 34 per cent, respectively.

Of Ontario patients currently being treated for COVID-19 in ICUs, 27 are unvaccinated and 90 are fully vaccinated. The vaccination status of the remaining patients is unknown.

Officials also reported 16 new deaths due to COVID-19. Officials said 15 of the deaths occurred over the past 30 days, while one of them took place over a month ago.

Since the start of the pandemic, 12,858 individuals have lost their lives due to the disease.

With 11,755 tests processed in the past 24 hours, the Ministry of Health says the province's positivity rate is about 13.2 per cent.

The province reported 1,547 new cases of COVID-19 on Tuesday, but health officials have warned that number is a significant underestimation due to testing limitations and backlogs.

Provincial wastewater data appears to show the concentration of the novel coronavirus cresting in most regions.

“Sometimes it’s a little up, sometimes it’s a little down, sometimes it’s plateauing, and of course this is a massive province so it’s different in different areas in the province,” UHN infectious diseases specialist Dr. Isaac Bogoch told CP24 on Monday.

Today's report brings the total number of lab-confirmed cases in Ontario to 1,263,202.