Ontario reports 977 patients in hospital with COVID-19, 15 additional deaths

Health officials in Ontario are reporting 977 patients in hospital with COVID-19 on Sunday and 15 additional deaths due to the disease.

The data released by the government today shows a decrease over Saturday’s hospitalization total of 1,188. It should be noted that not all hospitals in Ontario report patient data over the weekend.

At the same time, admissions to intensive care related to COVID-19 rose by five to 173.

Data on incidental hospitalizations and the vaccination status of those infected was not released.

• Sign up here for Toronto breaking news alerts straight to your phone or e-mail

Labs performed 16,816 tests for the novel coronavirus in the last 24 hours, which the province said produced a positivity rate of 17.6 per cent.

At least 3,481 positive cases of COVID-19 were identified following those tests, though that number is likely an underestimate due to limited access to PCR testing across the province.

Another 15 net new deaths due to COVID-19 were also recorded, bringing the province’s death toll to 12,563.  Of those deaths reported overnight, 11 occurred in the past month and four occurred more than onre month ago.

Ontario has seen 1,195,918 lab-confirmed cases of COVID-19 throughout the pandemic, including 1,152,175 recoveries.