Ontario reported 11 net new COVID-19 deaths and nearly 1,200 hospitalizations on Saturday.
The Ministry of Health says 1,188 people are currently hospitalized with the virus, up from 1,135 yesterday and from 855 a week ago. Today marks a nearly 40 per cent week-over-week increase in hospitalizations.
Forty-five per cent of hospitalized patients were admitted to hospital for COVID-19-related reasons and 55 per cent were admitted for reasons other than the virus, but also tested positive for COVID-19.
Meanwhile, 168 of hospitalized patients are in intensive care, up by three from seven days ago.
The ministry says 64 per cent of ICU patients were admitted for virus-related reasons and 36 per cent were taken to hospital for other reasons, but subsequently tested positive for COVID-19.
The province reported 11 more virus-related deaths today, with 10 occuring in the past month and one that happened more than a month ago. Two of the deaths were long-term care home residents.
To date, Ontario has reported 12,548 COVID-19 deaths since March 2020.
The province conducted more than 18,600 tests in the past 24 hours, producing a positivity rate of 18.4 per cent, up from 17.1 per cent a week ago, according to the ministry.
Another 3,797 lab-confirmed cases were reported today, however the daily case count continues to be a significant undercount due to limited testing.
Among the latest cases, 2,286 of the individuals have received three doses, 937 have received two doses, 423 are not fully vaccinated and 151 have an unknown vaccination status.
Earlier this week, the head of the province’s science table said Ontario is likely seeing upwards of 100,000 new cases of COVID-19 every day.
“Based on our wastewater analysis, we just reached the peak we were at in early January and at that time, we were at about 100,000 to 120,000 new cases per day,” Dr. Peter Jüni told CP24 on Wednesday. “What it basically means is that roughly five per cent of the population of Ontario right now has an active infection.”
Jüni attributed the primary reason for the spike in cases to the government’s removal of mandatory masking in most settings, which came into effect last month.
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 51 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.
