There are now more people in Ontario hospitals with COVID-19 than at any time since late May as the new wave of the pandemic, driven by the BA.5 subvariant, continues to worsen.
The latest figures released by the Ministry of Health on Thursday afternoon revealed that there are now 985 people hospitalized with the disease caused by the new coronavirus, which is more than 38 percent more than this time last week.
The number of those patients requiring intensive care also rose each week, but not at nearly the same pace, going from 110 to 118.
A number of other public health indicators similarly point to an increase in viral activity.
The rate of positive PCR tests over the past seven days was 14.2 percent, compared to 12.3 percent at this time last week and 9.8 percent two weeks ago.
Meanwhile, the seven-day average of cases detected by PCR tests was 1,439, compared with 1,072 at this time last week.
However, Chief Medical Officer of Health Dr. Kieran Moore cautioned that the true number of daily infections in Ontario is likely “three to four” times higher than the PCR count due to limited eligibility for testing. That would mean Ontario has actually seen between 5,000 and 6,000 new cases per day over the past week.
The latest data comes as Ontario expands eligibility for a fourth dose to include all adults who have been at least five months since their last vaccine.
Health Canada also approved Moderna’s vaccine for infants, toddlers and preschoolers on Thursday, making that group eligible for vaccination for the first time.
Speaking to reporters at a press conference on Wednesday, Moore said he was “not considering recommending to the government additional public health measures” at this time.
But he said the recent surge in viral activity should serve as a “call to arms” for Ontarians who are not up to date on their vaccinations.
“We went from about 8,000 (doses administered) on average per day to 16,000 people immunized yesterday, and I absolutely hope and expect that we’ll see those numbers increase every day in the coming weeks,” he said.
In the past week, Ontario added 39 net new deaths to its COVID-19 toll, bringing the number to 13,493.
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