Ontario confirmed another 20 virus-related deaths on Thursday as the number of positive tests continued to decline.
Laboratories in Ontario have processed 11,109 tests in the last 24 hours, which gave a percentage of positive results of 8.4% compared to 9.6% a week ago, according to the ministry.
This is the lowest pass rate since February 22, when it was 6.9 percent.
“In almost every measure, things are getting much, much better in terms of COVID-19 in Ontario. The number of cases is decreasing, the number of positives is decreasing, the number of people in hospitals is decreasing, the number of people in the intensive care unit is decreasing, as if everything is going in the right direction, “Infectious Diseases Specialist Dr. Isaac Bogoch told CP24 on Friday.
Meanwhile, hospitalizations and employment in the intensive care unit are increasing every day, but are declining compared to a week ago.
There are currently 1,082 patients with the virus in Ontario hospitals, up from 890 yesterday but less than 1,207 a week ago.
The ministry says 42% of patients were admitted for COVID-19-related reasons and 58% were admitted for other reasons but were subsequently tested positive for the virus.
Of the 160 hospitalized, they are in intensive care, three more than yesterday, but less than a total of 168 patients a week ago.
Sixty percent of the intensive care unit patients were taken to the hospital for COVID-19-related reasons, and 40 percent were admitted for other reasons but also tested positive for the virus.
Although hospitalizations have been declining over the past month, Bogoc says the health system is still overcrowded due to a lack of staff.
“In the last two years, there have been many people who have left the profession. It’s just that it’s much, much harder nowadays to have staff on beds, and if you talk to probably every hospital administrator in any ward in any hospital, I guarantee that they will have the same problems and discuss the same problems, “he said.
The health ministry says the 20 deaths reported today have occurred in the past month and three have been placed in long-term care homes.
The province has confirmed 13,195 deaths related to the virus since March 2020.
Provincial officials registered another 1,217 infections today, but they say that’s not enough due to limited access to PCR testing.
Among recent cases, 830 of the individuals received three doses of vaccine, 200 received two doses, 118 were partially or unvaccinated, and 69 had unknown vaccination status.
Yesterday, the province administered 21,100 doses of vaccine throughout the province.
To date, 90 percent of Ontario residents aged five and over have received a single dose of COVID-19 vaccine, 87 percent have received two doses, and 52 percent have received three doses.
The numbers used in this story are in the Ontario Department of Health’s daily epidemiological summary COVID-19. The number of cases for each city or region may differ slightly from that reported by the province, as local units report figures at different times.
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