Ontario confirmed 28 more COVID-19 deaths on Wednesday and more than 1,600 patients hospitalized with the virus, as hospitalizations continue to rise amid a six wave of the pandemic.
The Ministry of Health says the deaths occurred in the past month, and the virus-related death toll now stands at 12,661.
Five of those deaths were long-term care home residents.
The ministry also reported 1,662 patients are currently hospitalized with the virus, up from 1,486 yesterday and from 1,332 a week ago. Today marks the highest number of hospitalized patients since Feb.12.
The ministry says 45 per cent of hospitalized patients were admitted for COVID-19-related reasons and 55 per cent were admitted for other reasons but also tested positive for the virus.
Among the hospitalized patients, 203 are in intensive care, down by three from yesterday but up by 21 from a week ago.
Sixty-four per cent of ICU patients were admitted for COVID-19 and 36 per cent were admitted for other reasons and subsequently tested positive for the virus.
Ontario labs processed nearly 22,000 tests in the past 24 hours, producing a positivity rate of 16.8 per cent compared to 17.5 per cent a week ago, according to the ministry.
The province confirmed 1,073 more infections today but health officials say that is an undercount due to limited access to free PCR testing.
Among the latest cases, 599 of the individuals have received three doses of a vaccine, 247 have received two doses, 104 are not fully vaccinated and 123 have an unknown vaccination status.
Last week, the head of Ontario’s Science Advisory Table, Dr Peter Jüni, said cases appear to have plateaued after reaching between 100,000 and 120,000 new cases daily in early April, based on wastewater data.
However, infectious diseases specialist Dr. Isaac Bogoch says infections are at its peak right now and residents should remain vigilant.
“There are some very early early signals of the wastewater either plateauing or even decreasing in some parts of the province but those are very early signals. And you know, even if that's true, even if that stands the test of time, even if we are actually starting to see a true decline in cases, we're very near the peak, maybe we're over the peak, but we're still very near the peak,” Bogoch told CP24 Wednesday morning.
“That means there's the most cases out there during this wave than at any other time during this wave. (If) said another way, there's a lot of COVID out there.”
So far, 92 per cent of Ontarians aged five years and older have received one dose of a COVID-19 vaccine, 91 per cent have received two doses and 56 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.
