COVID-19 hospitalizations in Ontario drop to 1,661, ICU admissions fall to 202

Health officials in Ontario are reporting a drop in the number of hospitalizations and ICU admissions related to COVID-19.

Thursday’s data shows there are currently 1,661 patients in hospital--a decrease of 73 patients overnight. In the ICU, admissions now total 202, down from 211 a day earlier and 219 on Tuesday.

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Data provided by the government shows that of the patients in hospital, 1,012 are fully vaccinated, 232 are unvaccinated, and 79 are partially vaccinated. The vaccination status of the remaining patients was not released.

Fifty-six per cent of those patients were not hospitalized due to COVID-19, but have since tested positive. The remaining 46 per cent were admitted because of the virus.

In the ICU, 104 patients are fully vaccinated, 28 are unvaccinated, and seven are partially vaccinated. No other information on vaccination status was provided.

At least 67 per cent of those patients in intensive care were admitted due to a COVID-19 infection, while the remaining 33 per cent tested positive after the fact.

The figures released by Ontario’s health ministry Thursday appear to align with comments made by the province’s top doctor last week, who said he was “cautiously optimistic” that the worst of the sixth COVID-19 wave was behind us and that hospitalizations related to the virus are expected to peak in the near future.

Meanwhile, the province is reporting an additional 20 deaths due to the novel coronavirus. Those fatalities occurred over the last month and bring Ontario’s COVID-19 death toll to 12,792.

In the last 24 hours, labs across the province processed 18,875 tests, which the Ministry of Health said generated a positivity rate of 14.5 per cent.

At least 3,560 positive cases of the virus were discovered through those tests. However, due to limited access to PCR testing, that case count should be considered an underestimate.

Ontario has recorded 1,252,578 lab-confirmed cases of COVID-19 since the start of the pandemic and 1,208,322 previously infected individuals have recovered as of Thursday.