Ontario reports 1,626 COVID-19 hospitalizations, 17 additional deaths

Health officials in Ontario say 1,626 people are in hospital with COVID-19 as another 17 deaths due to the disease were reported in the last 24 hours.

Thursday’s data marks a decrease in the number of hospitalizations reported a day earlier when they reached 1,662.

Of the patients in hospital, 1,043 are fully vaccinated, 213 are unvaccinated, and 78 are partially vaccinated. The vaccination status of the remaining patients is unknown.

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Fifty-five per cent of the patients currently receiving care were not admitted due to COVID-19, but have since tested positive. Forty-five per cent were admitted because of COVID-19.

In the ICU, four additional patients were admitted overnight, bringing the total number of those in intensive care with the novel coronavirus to 207.

Of those patients, 83 patients are fully vaccinated, 32 are unvaccinated, and four are partially vaccinated. No other vaccination information was released by the government Thursday. Moreover, 62 per cent were admitted to intensive care due to their COVID-19 diagnosis, while 38 per cent were admitted for a different reason but are now testing positive.

As well, 17 deaths due to the disease have been reported since Wednesday, which pushes the province’s death toll to 12,678.

An additional 5,038 positive cases were also identified in the last 24-hour period, though the Ministry of Health explained that number is higher than usual due to a “data clean up.”

At least 20,840 tests were performed since yesterday, which the province said generated a positivity rate of 18.3 per cent.

The director Ontario’s COVID-19 science table said Wednesday he expects infections in the province may rise following the holiday weekend. However, Dr. Peter Juni said wastewater data shows a possible peak, the number of health-care workers testing positive for COVID-19 has plateaued, and test positivity has also plateaued.

Since the beginning of the pandemic, Ontario has recorded 1,229,572 lab-confirmed cases of COVID-19, including 1,184,812 recoveries. 

With files from the Canadian Press