Ontario hits record with nearly 4,000 people hospitalized with COVID-19

Ontario has set another record for the highest number of people in hospital with COVID-19 since the start of the pandemic. 

Health officials reported on Saturday that 3,957 people are testing positive for COVID-19 in hospital, which is an increase of 143 in the past 24 hours. That number is up from 2,594 hospitalizations one week ago.

The province says there are 558 people being treated in intensive care, up from 527 on Friday.

The province said 53 per cent of the hospitalizations are people who are in hospital primarily due to COVID-19, while the remaining 47 per cent were admitted for other reasons but are now testing positive for the virus.

Ontario also added 10,732 new COVID-19 infections today, but that number is an underestimate of the true case count due to restrictions on testing. 

In the past 24-hour period, the test positivity rate in the province was 24.8 per cent. 

According to the government, there were 43 COVID-19-related fatalities, bringing the total number of deaths since the start of the pandemic to 10,565.

In total, there have been 937,636 lab-confirmed COVID-19 cases in Ontario, including deaths and recoveries.

In the Greater Toronto Area, officials reported 2,045 new cases in Toronto, 1,533 new cases in Peel Region, 868 new cases in York Region, 986 new cases in Durham Region and 627 new cases in Halton Region.

Officials reported 508 new cases in Waterloo region and 466 new cases in Ottawa.

Ontario reported 277 resident cases and 89 staff cases in long-term care settings across the province. It also noted that three of the 10 deaths reported were long-term care residents.

Officials stated that at least 417 long-term care homes are currently dealing with an outbreak of COVID-19.