Ontario reporting more than 1,500 new COVID-19 cases as hospitalizations, ICU admissions jump

Ontario is reporting more than 1,500 new cases of COVID-19 today as virus-related hospitalizations surge in the province.

Provincial health officials are reporting 1,546 new cases of the disease caused by the novel coronavirus today, down from 1,699 on Monday and 1,791 on Sunday but up significantly from the 1,074 cases confirmed last Tuesday.

The rolling seven-day average of new cases has climbed from 1,334 to 1,667 week-over-week.

The number of active, lab-confirmed cases of COVID-19 in Ontario has now surpassed 15,000, up from 12,506 last week.

Nine more virus-related deaths were confirmed over the past 24 hours, including one involving a resident of long-term care.

The average daily death toll from COVID-19 in Ontario is down from 13 last Tuesday to 11 today.

With 32,556 tests processed yesterday, the Ministry of Health is reporting a positivity rate of 5.7 per cent, the highest that number has been since the end of January.

There are now 868 people hospitalized with COVID-19 in Ontario, up from 813 on Monday, according to the province. Information from local public health units puts that number at 912.

Ontario is also reporting that there are 324 COVID-19 patients in intensive care, up from 298 on Monday and 292 seven days ago. Ontario has not seen this many COVID-19 patients in the ICU since Feb. 8, according to information released by the Ministry of Health.

Data from Critical Care Services Ontario (CCSO) indicates that the number of patients in intensive care is higher than what is being reported by the province. A report released by CCSO on March 22 puts the number of ICU patients provincewide at 372.

More transmissible variants of concern are believed to represent about 50 per cent of all new cases in Ontario, though fewer than 1,500 variant cases have been officially confirmed through a process known as whole genome sequencing. Nearly 14,000 cases have screened positive for a variant of concern but the lineage has not yet been detected.

The B.1.1.7 variant, which was first found in the United Kingdom, is believed to account for the vast majority of variant cases in the province.

Of the new infections reported today, 465 are in Toronto, 329 are in Peel Region, and 161 are in York Region. Despite the rise in cases, restrictions have actually been eased in those three regions over the past week. Patio dining is now permitted in both Toronto and Peel and indoor dining capacity has been increased for restaurants in regions in the red and orange zones of the province's reopening framework, including York Region.

Dr. Isaac Bogoch, an infectious diseases specialist and member of the province's COVID-19 vaccine task force, said while he supports the move to allow outdoor dining in regions in the grey zone, he was "perplexed" by the province's decision to allow more people inside restaurants for indoor dining.

"If you put more people into an indoor space close together and then take off their masks, you can't be surprised if you get outbreaks," he told CP24 on Tuesday. 

The numbers used in this story are found in the Ontario Ministry of Health's COVID-19 Daily Epidemiologic Summary. The number of cases for any city or region may differ slightly from what is reported by the province, because local units report figures at different times.