Ontario reports 32 more COVID-19 deaths as province begins phased reopening

Ontario is reporting another 32 deaths related to COVID-19 on Monday as the province begins the process of reopening after nearly a month of stringent lockdown measures.

Of those deaths, 31 occurred over the past 17 days while the remaining death occurred more than a month ago.

Two of the people who died were residents of a long-term care home.

The total number of COVID-19 related deaths in Ontario now stands at 11,444.

For the first time in just over two weeks Ontario is reporting fewer than 3,000 people in hospital with COVID-19; however it’s important to note that some hospitals do not report data over the weekend.

Of the 2,983 patients being treated with COVID-19, at least 583 are in intensive care. Three hundred and forty-seven people are breathing with the assistance of a ventilator.

The province has not released a breakdown of how many of those patients were admitted specifically for reasons associated with COVID-19. The vaccination status of hospitalization patients is also not known.

The province is reporting an additional 3,043 COVID-19 cases in Ontario on Monday; however that number remains an underestimation due to strict testing requirements.

Of those infections, 170 were identified in residents of long-term care and 45 were identified in Ontario health-care workers.

According to the province’s epidemiology report, there were 603 infections identified in Toronto, 431 identified in Peel Region and 175 identified in York Region.

Other municipalities that recorded more than 100 new COVID-19 cases include Ottawa (201), Hamilton (173), Niagara (123), Durham (119), Halton (118) and Windsor-Essex (105).

With just over 15,000 tests processed in the last 24-hour period, officials say Ontario’s positivity rate is about 14.7 per cent.

Since the pandemic began, the province has identified 1,033,294 lab-confirmed cases of COVID-19, including deaths and recoveries.