Ontario reports one COVID-19 death as hospitalizations drop to lowest number in months

Ontario health officials are reporting one more COVID-19 death on Monday as the number of people in hospital with the disease drops to the lowest total seen in months.

The province reported that at least 611 people are currently in hospital with COVID-19, which represents a drop from the 643 reported on Sunday and 865 reported on Saturday.

The last time the total number of hospitalizations fell this low was on March 23 when officials also reported that 611 people were in hospital with COVID-19.

Officials noted that not all hospitals in the province reported their COVID-19 data over the weekend.

The one death reported on Monday occurred in the last month. Since the start of the pandemic, 13,226 individuals have died due to the disease.

The province reported 547 new cases of COVID-19 on Monday, but health officials have warned that number is an underestimate due to testing limitations and backlogs.

With 6,368 processed in the past 24 hours, the Ministry of Health says the province's positivity rate is about 7.6 per cent.

Ontario’s COVID-19 positivity rate had not fallen to seven per cent or below since February.

In the Greater Toronto Area, officials reported 151 new cases in Toronto, 63 new cases in York Region, 35 new cases in Peel Region, 19 new cases each in Durham Region and Halton Region.

The province deemed 1,324 more cases of the disease to be resolved as of Monday, bringing Ontario's number of recovered patients up to 1,278,464.

Today's report brings the total number of lab-confirmed cases in Ontario to 1,302,443.

The province reported 36 resident cases and one staff case in long-term care settings across Ontario.

Officials said that at least 122 long-term care homes are currently dealing with an outbreak.