Ontario reports another 27 COVID-19 deaths as ICU admissions continue to rise

Another 27 deaths due to COVID-19 have been logged in Ontario as the number of patients in intensive care with the disease continues to rise.

The additional deaths occurred over the last month, health officials said, while a singular death was removed from the province’s cumulative tally due to a data cleaning.

Two of the deaths were residents of long-term care.

Since the beginning of the pandemic, at least 12,704 people have died after contracting the novel coronavirus.

As of Friday, there are at least 1,591 patients in Ontario hospitals with COVID-19. This represents a decrease from the last two days; however the number of patients in intensive care continues to rise.

There are 214 people in ICU with COVID-19, up from 207 patients the day before.

Of those patients, about 61 per cent are being treated specifically for the disease.

With just over 20,800 COVID-19 tests processed in the last 24-hour period, the Ministry of Health says the positivity rate in Ontario is about 16.1 per cent.

The last time the province saw a positivity rate below 15 per cent was at the end of March.

Ontario reported 4,668 more cases Friday, but a spokesperson for the Minister of Health said in a statement that today’s case count is due to a data catch-up and “is not reflective of a real daily increase in case numbers.”

The number of infections reported daily is generally considered an underestimate due to a lack of PCR testing in the province.

Dr. Peter Juni, the scientific director of the COVID-19 Science Advisory Table, has said Ontario will likely see a small bump in COVID-19 infections due to the holiday long-weekend. However, he also said the increase in infection won't fundamentally change the trajectory of the sixth wave.

According to the province, about 90 per cent of Ontarians aged five and up have received at least one dose of a COVID-19 vaccine while 86 per cent have received two doses and 51 per cent have received three shots.