Ontario reports 1,126 people in hospital with COVID-19, 16 new deaths

Ontario health officials say there are currently 1,126 people in hospital with COVID-19, including 159 patients in intensive care.

Thursday’s hospitalization total marks an increase over the 1,091 count reported on Wednesday. The last time the hospitalization count was this high in Ontario was on Feb. 19 when 1,191 people were in hospital with the disease.

Meanwhile, the total number of patients in intensive care units across Ontario dropped slightly from 168 on Wednesday to 159 on Thursday.

Officials also reported 16 more deaths due to COVID-19 that occurred over the past 30 days. Since the start of the pandemic, 12,527 have died due to the disease.

The province said that of the 159 people in the ICU with COVID-19 on Thursday, 19 are unvaccinated, three are partially vaccinated and 67 are fully vaccinated. The remaining 70 have an unknown vaccination status.

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According to data released by the Ontario Science Table on Wednesday, which takes into account population sizes, people who are fully vaccinated with at least two doses are 75.6 per cent less likely to end up in hospital and 84.9 per cent less likely to end up in ICU compared to people who are unvaccinated.

The province reported 4,224 new cases of COVID-19 on Thursday, but health officials have warned that number is an underestimate due to testing limitations and backlogs.

With 21,347 tests processed in the past 24 hours, the Ministry of Health says the province's positivity rate is about 17.2 per cent.

In the Greater Toronto Area, officials reported 875 new cases in Toronto, 265 new cases in York Region, 230 new cases in Peel Region, 191 new cases in Durham Region and 131 new cases in Halton Region.

Officials also reported 236 new cases in Ottawa, 235 new cases in Simcoe Muskoka, 225 new cases in the Kingston area and 221 new cases in Hamilton.

All other regions reported fewer than 200 new cases on Thursday.

The province deemed 2,838 more cases of the disease to be resolved as of Thursday, bringing Ontario's number of recovered patients up to 1,144,889.

Today's report brings the total number of lab-confirmed cases in Ontario to 1,184,345.

The province reported 62 resident cases and 15 staff cases in long-term care settings across Ontario. Three of the 16 deaths reported on Thursday were people living in long-term care.

Officials said that at least 109 long-term care homes are currently dealing with an outbreak.