Ontario COVID-19 hospitalizations decrease to 742, nearly 500 incidental deaths removed from total

Hospitalizations linked to COVID-19 in Ontario decreased to 742 on Thursday as nearly 500 deaths related to the novel coronavirus were removed from the province's total following a new initiative on reporting fatalities.

Of those patients in hospital, 46 per cent were admitted due to the virus while 54 per cent tested positive after the fact. At least 366 of those patients are fully vaccinated, 157 are unvaccinated, and 30 are partially vaccinated. No other vaccination information was provided by the government.

On Wednesday, the province announced it was changing the way it reports COVID-19 deaths.

Starting Friday, the Ministry of Health will start breaking down deaths into three categories: whether COVID-19 contributed to a death, whether COVID-19 caused a death, or if the cause of death is unknown or missing from provincial data.

Since then, 489 previously reported deaths linked to COVID-19 have been identified as incidental and removed from the province's tally. The new data shows that Ontario has recorded 12,149 deaths due to COVID-19 since the onset of the pandemic.

At the same time, 20 net new deaths were also recorded in the same time frame. However, 14 of those deaths occurred in the last month and six occurred more than one month ago and are being reported today due to a data cleaning.

In the ICU, 244 individuals are currently receiving care -- up by three patients over Wednesday’s data -- 79 per cent of whom are being treated for COVID-19 and 21 per cent who were admitted for other reasons but have since tested positive. Of those patients, 71 are fully vaccinated, 47 are unvaccinated, and four are partially vaccinated. The vaccination status of the remaining patients was not released.

At least 2,125 cases of COVID-19 were recorded in the last 24 hours amid limited access to testing across the province.

Those cases were identified through 14,695 tests which the province said generated a positivity rate of 11.2 per cent.

WHERE ARE THE NEW COVID-19 CASES?

According to the province, most of the cases reported on Thursday were found in Toronto (305), Peel Region (162), Ottawa (137), and Middlesex-London (103).

Other areas with relatively high COVID-19 case counts include Simcoe Muskoka (97), Durham Region (93), Hamilton (90), and Windsor-Essex (88).

UPDATE ON VACCINATIONS

Health Minister Christine Elliott said that 92.7 per cent of Ontarians have one dose of a COVID-19 vaccine and 90.7 per cent have two doses and are considered to be fully vaccinated.

More than 31,835,000 needles have gone into arms in Ontario, including 14,705 jabs that were administered on Wednesday.