Ontario reports 804 in hospital with COVID-19, 18 new deaths

Ontario health officials are reporting 804 people in hospital with COVID-19 Friday, including 167 patients in intensive care.

Friday’s hospitalizations mark a slight decrease over the 807 reported on Thursday.

Of Friday’s hospitalizations, 143 patients are unvaccinated and 503 are fully vaccinated. The vaccination status of the remaining patients is unknown.

Forty-nine per cent of patients being treated for COVID-19 in hospital Friday were admitted for COVID-19, while the remaining 51 per cent tested positive after an unrelated admission. In ICUs, those percentages are 71 per cent and 29 per cent, respectively.

Of Ontario patients currently being treated for COVID-19 in ICUs, 36 are unvaccinated and 63 are fully vaccinated. The vaccination status of the remaining patients is unknown.

Officials also reported 18 new deaths due to COVID-19 Friday. Officials said nine of the deaths occurred over the past 30 days, while nine of them took place over a month ago. 

Since the start of the pandemic, 12,451 individuals have died due to the disease.

With 17,468 tests processed in the past 24 hours, the Ministry of Health says the province's positivity rate is about 16.4 per cent.

The province reported 3,519 new cases of COVID-19 on Friday, but health officials have warned that number is an underestimate due to testing limitations.

Wastewater data, provided by Ontario’s COVID-19 Science Table, appears to confirm a slight increase in infection. In nearly every region in the province the concentration of the disease in wastewaters has started to rise.

The province deemed 2,173 more cases of the disease to be resolved as of Friday, bringing Ontario's number of recovered patients up to 1,131,601.

Today's report brings the total number of lab-confirmed cases in Ontario to 1,166,128.