News of COVID-19 in Ontario: the province reports 20 net new deaths; hospitalizations are declining slightly

Ontario reported 20 net new deaths from COVID-19 on Friday as hospitalizations fell slightly from their sixth wave earlier in the week.

The health ministry says 19 of the new deaths have occurred in the past 30 days, and another has occurred before.

There have been 132 deaths in the last seven days and 405 in the last 30 days.

The total confirmed number of deaths in Ontario due to COVID-19 is now 12,812.

Two of the deaths reported on Friday were related to long-term care seekers.

There were 1,679 patients admitted to hospital with COVID-19 on Friday, 18 more than Thursday, but down about 50 from earlier in the week.

Of these, 209 patients were in intensive care, seven more than yesterday.

Ninety-four patients were breathing with a ventilator.

Hospitalizations rose 5.5% from the same time last week and 17.6% from two weeks ago.

The Ontario COVID-19 Scientific Advisory Table, which cites wastewater data, says the spread of the virus is increasing in every region of Ontario, except southwestern and eastern Ontario, including Ottawa.

Of the 2,760 cases detected by PCR tests in Ontario in the past 24 hours, 268 included unvaccinated or partially vaccinated people, 544 included people with two doses of vaccine, 1,775 included people with three doses of vaccine, and 173 involved people whose vaccination status did not is famous.

The provincial laboratories processed 19,235 test samples in the previous period, generating a positive result rate of 13.2 percent.

Positivity among the groups eligible for free testing has declined recently, from an average of 18.1% last week to 15% this week.

The health ministry said 33,077 doses of COVID-19 vaccine were given on Thursday.

Of these, 1390 were first doses, 1604 were second doses, 4246 were third doses and 25837 were fourth 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.