Ontario reports no net new deaths from COVID-19 for first time in more than a month

Ontario is reporting no net new deaths from COVID-19 for the first time in more than a month, alongside another week-over-week drop in hospitalizations.

It is the first time since May 9 that a 24-hour period went by without any additional deaths being added to the province’s COVID-19 tally, which remains stuck at 13,338.

Meanwhile, all other public health indicators continue to show improvement ahead of a summer that most epidemiologists and public health experts say will see comparatively low levels of viral activity.

The latest data from the Ministry of Health suggests that there are 370 people in hospital with COVID-19.

That number represents an incomplete census as many hospitals don’t report occupancy data on weekends. However, it is down 14 per cent from this time last week and nearly 40 per cent from two weeks ago.

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Of the people hospitalized with COVID-19, a total of 112 are in intensive care. At this time last week 116 COVID patients were in ICU units.

Positivity rates on PCR testing are also trending downwards.

Over the last 24 hours 6.5 per cent of all tests processed in Ontario’s labs came back positive. It is the second lowest positivity rate in any 24-hour period since December and is down significantly from the peak reached in April when nearly 20 per cent of all PCR tests were coming back positive.

More to come…