Ontario's COVID-19 hospitalizations drop to 1,829, ICU admissions fall to 435

The number of COVID-19 hospitalizations and ICU admissions in Ontario continues to drop.

The province reported 1,829 patients in hospital with COVID-19 on Friday -- a decrease of 68 -- while ICU admissions fell by 10 to 435.

Of those patients in hospital, 54 per cent were admitted due to COVID-19 and 46 per cent tested positive after they were admitted.

At least 979 of those patients are fully vaccinated, 379 are unvaccinated, and 87 are partially vaccinated. No vaccination information was provided for the remaining patients.

In the ICU, 80 per cent of patients are being treated for COVID-19 and 20 per cent tested positive but are being treated for a different reason.

The province said that 158 of those patients are fully vaccinated, 118 are unvaccinated, and 15 are partially vaccinated. No other vaccination information was provided.

Another 52 deaths related to COVID-19 were also reported on Friday, though those deaths actually occurred over the course of the last month and beyond.

At the same time, 2,907 more cases of COVID-19 were reported across the province, though health officials have warned that number is an underestimate due to limited access to PCR testing.

Labs processed 20,936 tests in the last 24 hours, which the Ministry of Health said produced a positivity rate of 11.7 per cent.

Ontario has seen 1,067,511 lab-confirmed cases of COVID-19 since the beginning of the pandemic, including 12,040 deaths and 1,027,117 recoveries.

On Thursday, Ontario’s Chief Medical Officer of Health Dr. Kieran Moore said that all of Ontario's COVID-19 measures -- including restrictions on businesses, masking rules and its vaccine certificate policy -- are under review as the COVID-19 situation in the province improves.

WHERE ARE THE NEW COVID-19 CASES?

According to the province, most of the cases reported on Friday were found in Toronto (380), Peel Region (192), Ottawa (191), and York Region (161).

Other areas with relatively high case counts reported include Simcoe Muskoka (134), Windsor-Essex (124), Niagara Region (124), Middlesex-London (112), Hamilton (111), Thunder Bay (109), Northwestern Public Health Unit (106), and Durham Region (104).

UPDATE ON VACCINATIONS

According to Health Minister Christine Elliott, 92.2 per cent of Ontarians over the age of 12 have at least one dose of a COVID-19 vaccine and 89.6 per cent have two doses.

At least 31,199,694 shots have been administered overall and 46,607 doses were administered on Thursday.