Ontario confirmed 11 more COVID-19 deaths and a week-over-week decrease in hospitalizations and ICU occupancy on Tuesday.

Provincial officials say the deaths occurred in the last month and that one was a long-term care home resident.

Since March 2020, the province has reported 13,083 virus-related fatalities.

There are currently 1,345 patients with the virus in Ontario hospitals, an uptick from 1,122 yesterday.

Monday’s data, however, reflected an incomplete census as about 10 per cent of hospitals don’t report over the weekend. Hospitalizations are down 13 per cent from this time last week when 1,555 people with COVID-19 were receiving treatment.

Among those currently in hospital, 165 are in intensive care compared to 159 a day ago. At this time last week 188 COVID patients were in intensive care.

The Ministry of Health says 38 per cent of hospital patients were admitted for COVID-related reasons, while 61 per cent were admitted for non-COVID-related reasons and subsequently tested positive for the virus.

Sixty-six per cent of ICU patients were admitted for the virus and 33 per cent were admitted for other reasons but tested positive for the virus.

Provincial labs processed more than 12,200 tests in the past 24 hours, producing a positivity rate of 10.3 per cent, down from 12.4 per cent a week ago, the ministry says.

Ontario confirmed 1,028 more COVID-19 infections today but health officials say daily case counts are an underestimate due to limited access to PCR testing.

Among the latest cases, 637 of the individuals have received three doses of a vaccine, 185 have received two doses, 135 are partially or unvaccinated and 71 have an unknown vaccination status.

Ontarians aged 60 and over, as well as First Nation, Inuit and Métis individuals and their non-Indigenous household members aged 18 and over, are currently eligible to receive their fourth booster shot.

As for expanding fourth doses to other age groups, infectious diseases specialist at Toronto General Hospital Dr. Isaac Bogoch says there needs to be more research to suggest an ideal time frame for more booster shots.

“...I really think that we have to have good evidence to say how significant is a fourth dose versus a third dose in preventing that significant illness in, I don't know, a 20 year old or a 30 year old or a 40 year old,” he told CP24 on Tuesday.

“Listen, the evidence might be there. And of course, over time I think we have to be very open minded that we may need a booster shot and that might be on a seasonal basis or at some other frequency. But I just think we should have reasonable data.”

Yesterday the province administered 20,176 vaccine doses into the arms of Ontarians.

To date, 90 per cent of Ontarians aged five years and older have received one dose of a COVID-19 vaccine, 86 per cent have received two doses and 52 per cent have received three doses.

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.