Ontario reports 3,595 people in hospital with COVID-19, increase in ICU patients

Ontario is reporting 3,595 people hospitalized with COVID-19 and another spike in the number of people in intensive care.

Health officials said Sunday that 579 people are being treated in intensive care for COVID-19, which is an increase of 21 people in the past 24-hour period.

The number of people in hospital dropped on Sunday from 3,957 on Saturday, but some hospitals do not report data to the province on the weekends.

Ontario also added 10,450 new COVID-19 infections today, but that number is an underestimate of the true case count due to restrictions on testing. 

Of the new cases on Sunday, 1,456 involve people who are not vaccinated, 360 are in those partially vaccinated, 8,079 involve people who have received at least two doses, and 555 involve those with an unknown vaccination status.

In the past 24-hour period, the test positivity rate in the province was 22.7 per cent.

According to the government, there were 40 COVID-19-related fatalities, bringing the total number of deaths since the start of the pandemic to 10,605.

In the Greater Toronto Area, officials reported 2,196 new cases in Toronto, 1,652 new cases in Peel Region, 880 new cases in York Region, 699 new cases in Durham Region and 552 new cases in Halton Region.

Officials reported 531 new cases in Waterloo region and 388 new cases in Ottawa.

Ontario reported 257 resident cases and 63 staff cases in long-term care settings across the province.

Officials stated that at least 424 long-term care homes are currently dealing with an outbreak of COVID-19.