Provincial health officials reported another 15 deaths related to COVID-19 on Tuesday as the number of patients with the virus in the intensive care unit decreased.
The province says 14 of the last deaths occurred in the last month, and one death occurred more than a month ago and was added to the total based on data cleansing.
Three of the dead were placed in long-term care homes.
Since March 2020, the province has confirmed 13,241 deaths related to the virus.
The Department of Health says there are 808 COVID-19 patients in Ontario hospitals, up from 890 a week ago.
Forty percent of patients were admitted to hospital for COVID-19-related reasons, while nearly 60 percent were admitted for other reasons and subsequently tested positive for the virus.
Of those in hospital, the ministry says 140 are in intensive care, 17 fewer than a week ago.
Sixty-seven percent of intensive care patients were hospitalized for virus-related reasons, and 32 percent were admitted for other reasons but tested positive for COVID-19.
Infectious Diseases Specialist Dr. Zane Chagla says most COVID-19 indicators need to continue to improve over the summer season.
“I think compared to just a few months ago, we are definitely in a better place. The number of intensive care units is decreasing, the number of hospitalizations is decreasing. So these surrogate measures for community action are declining, wastewater is declining, “he told CP24 on Tuesday.
“We will probably see a summer of calm, as we have seen in all three years. And then autumn will be the year in which we will have to start deciding what to do next when things start to go up. “
Laboratories in Ontario have processed 9,535 tests in the last 24 hours, which gave a percentage of positive results of 8.3% compared to 7.6% yesterday, but a decrease of 9.1% a week ago, according to the ministry.
The province also confirmed another 590 infections today, but health officials warn that the number of cases has been underestimated due to limited PCR testing.
In recent cases, 347 have received three or more doses of vaccine, 110 have received two doses, 82 have been partially or unvaccinated, and 51 have unknown vaccination status.
Yesterday, 14,540 doses of vaccine were administered in 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.
On Tuesday, the federal government announced it would extend all travel arrangements with COVID-19 until June 30, requiring all travelers, regardless of their vaccination status, to continue submitting information to the ArriveCAN app.
Unvaccinated Canadians traveling in the country will have to continue to do a PCR test on arrival and on the eighth day of their mandatory 14-day quarantine.
However, many health officials are calling on the government to suspend these measures, as they are not as effective as they used to be and are a barrier to travel.
“There’s a great study from Cornell University, where vaccine passports actually did a really good job of preventing infection until Omicron hit and a quarter of the campus got infected. So you know, if it doesn’t really work, we really need to get it off the table, “Chagla said.
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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