COVID-19 hospitalizations continue to decline in Ontario as 15 more deaths reported

Hospitalizations related to COVID-19 in Ontario continue to decline as the province reports an additional 15 deaths related to the disease.

Officials said Friday that 948 people who tested positive for the novel coronavirus are being treated in hospital, including 154 patients in intensive care.

Of those in hospital, about 41 per cent are being treated specifically for COVID-19. The remaining patients tested positive after admission for other ailments.

In intensive care more than half of patients, about 61 per cent, were admitted due to COVID-19.

Officials also confirmed an additional 15 deaths related to COVID-19. Fourteen of those people died in the last month, while the remaining death has been added to the cumulative total in a data catchup.

Eight of the individuals reported deceased on Friday were residents in long-term care, officials say.

At least 13,210 people in Ontario have died after contracting COVID-19 since the beginning of the pandemic.

With just over 13,300 COVID-19 tests processed in the last 24-hour period, the Ministry of Health says the province’s positivity rate is remaining stagnant at 8.3 per cent.

PCR testing in Ontario, which is used to calculate the province’s positivity rate and daily tallies, remains restricted to highly vulnerable or hospitalized individuals.

On Friday, officials say those tests yielded 1,096 lab-confirmed cases of COVID-19, bringing Ontario’s total since March 2020 to 1,299,843.