Ontario is reporting another 32 deaths in individuals who have contracted COVID-19 but hospitalizations and outbreaks continue to steadily decline.
A spokesperson for the Ministry of Health says that 31 of the deaths occurred over the last 17 days, including eight on Saturday.
The latest data pushes Ontario’s COVID-19 death toll to 11,444.
About 11 per cent of those deaths – 1, 250 – have been reported in January, making this month one of the most deadly since the onset of the pandemic nearly two years ago.
The good news is that hospitalizations appear to be on the decline after surging during the first few weeks of 2022.
On Monday the ministry reported that there were 2,983 people hospitalized with COVID-19, including 583 in intensive care.
While data reported at the beginning of the week is typically incomplete because some hospitals don’t upload information over the weekend, it still represents a significant decrease from one week prior when 3,861 people were in Ontario hospitals with COVID-19.
It is also equates to a 28 per cent decline from the fourth wave peak reached on Jan. 18 when 4,183 people with COVID-19 were hospitalized.
Meanwhile outbreaks continue to decline in the handful of settings where there is widespread access to PCR testing, though they remain near record levels.
As of Monday, there were 345 active outbreaks associated with long-term care homes, 244 associated with retirement homes and 201 associated with hospitals. There were also another 77 active outbreaks associated with shelters and 23 associated with correctional facilities.
Those numbers are all down approximately 15 to 30 per cent from one week ago.
The latest data comes as many business that have been shuttered for most of 2022 reopen at 50 per cent capacity, including gyms and cinemas.
There has also been a shift in messaging that has taken place among some public health officials in advance of the reopening, with Ontario’s Chief Medical Officer of Health Dr. Kieran Moore telling reporters last week that it is time that we “learn to live with COVID-19.”
“With where we are with the fact that much of the population does have immunity that is hopefully being boosted and unfortunately a lot of the population has gotten COVID-19 over the last couple months and that will likely also add an immunity barrier in the population, I think we do have to start thinking about forward strategies,” infectious disease physician Dr. Zain Chagla told CP24 on Monday morning. “Does that mean everyone is going to take off their masks and crowd indoors in the next few months? No. But a gradual reopening, being humble bust still allowing businesses to operate, I think is the way forward. We have the tools to help people from ending up in hospital.”
Testing drops to levels not seen since the summer
The latest data released on Monday suggests that there were 3,043 new lab-confirmed cases of COVID-19 over the last 24 hours.
The positives came on only 15,008 tests, which is the lowest number of tests that have been conducted in a single 24-hour period since Aug. 3.
The province has previously said that its labs actually have the capacity to process up to 75,000 tests a day but it significantly curtailed access to PCR testing earlier this month in response to surging demand.
Since then volumes have declined considerably, as officials have repeatedly warned that case counts are no longer a reliable metric to evaluate the progression of the pandemic.
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.
