Ontario logs 28 more COVID-19 deaths as hospitalizations continue to decline

Ontario is reporting another 28 deaths related to COVID-19 as the number of patients hospitalized with the virus continues to decline.

Health officials say that 821 people are in Ontario hospitals with COVID-19, including 262 people in intensive care.

This is the sixth day in a row in which officials have reported fewer than 1,000 COVID-19 patients in hospital and the eighth day in a row where fewer than 300 ICU patients were logged.

The last time the province reported such a low number of COVID-19 hospitalizations was on Dec. 29, when 726 people were being treated for the virus.

About 44 per cent of the COVID-19 patients in hospital were admitted due to COVID-19 while the remaining patients tested positive after being admitted for an unrelated ailment.

However, the majority of ICU patients—about 80 per cent—were admitted due to the novel coronavirus.

Twenty-six of the deaths reported Friday occurred in the past month, officials said, while the remaining two deaths occurred more than a month and were added to the cumulative count as part of a data cleanup.

Six of those deaths were residents of long-term care.

In total, 12,525 people have died after contracting COVID-19 in Ontario since the beginning of the pandemic.

With just over 15,925 COVID-19 tests processed in the last 24-hour period, the province’s positivity rate stands at about 10.7 per cent.

The province is reporting 2,085 lab-confirmed positive cases of the novel coronavirus; however officials have long said this number is an underestimation due to lack of PCR testing.

According to the province’s epidemiology report, there were 316 COVID-19 cases in Toronto, 115 in Peel Region and 72 in York Region.

Other municipalities reporting more than 100 infections include Simcoe-Muskoka (198), Ottawa (145) and Windsor-Essex (113).

Ontario’s chief medical officer of health said on Thursday the province could lift its mask mandate by the end of March. Dr. Kieran Moore made this suggestion while also saying that a subvariant of Omicron, known as BA.2, is on its way to becoming the dominant strain in Ontario.

“I do believe the highest risk is behind us,” he said.

About 85.2 per cent of eligible Ontario residents have at least one dose of COVID-19 vaccine while at least 81.5 per cent have two doses.

According to provincial data, about 47.5 per cent of Ontarians have received all three doses of COVID-19 vaccine.