Ontario reports over 800 patients hospitalized with COVID-19 as positivity rate rises

Ontario health officials are reporting 807 people in hospital with COVID-19 Thursday, including 166 patients in intensive care, as the provincial positivity rate continues to rise.

Thursday’s hospitalizations case count marks an increase over the 778 reported on Wednesday.

Of Thursday’s hospitalizations, 182 patients are unvaccinated and 495 are fully vaccinated. The vaccination status of the remaining patients is unknown.

Forty-eight per cent of patients being treated for COVID-19 in hospital Thursday were admitted due to the virus, while the remaining 52 per cent tested positive after an unrelated admission. In ICUs, those percentages are 74 per cent and 26 per cent, respectively.

Of Ontario patients currently being treated for COVID-19 in ICUs, 27 are unvaccinated and 69 are fully vaccinated. The vaccination status of the remaining patients is unknown.

Officials reported six new deaths due to COVID-19 Thursday. Officials said five of the deaths occurred over the past 30 days, while one of them took place over a month ago.

Since the start of the pandemic, 12,433 individuals have lost their lives due to the disease.

With 18,318 tests processed in the past 24 hours, the Ministry of Health says the province's positivity rate is about 16 per cent — an increase of almost one per cent over yesterday's rate.

The province reported 3,139 new cases of COVID-19 on Thursday, but health officials have warned that number is an underestimate due to testing limitations and backlogs.

Wastewater data, provided by Ontario’s COVID-19 Science Table, appears to confirm a slight increase in infection. In nearly every region in the province the concentration of the disease in wastewaters has started to rise.

The province deemed 2,121 more cases of the disease to be resolved as of Thursday, bringing Ontario's number of recovered patients up to 1,129,428.

Today's report brings the total number of lab-confirmed cases in Ontario to 1,162,609.