Ontario reported an increase in hospitalizations during the day and a slight decline in intensive care patients on Saturday, as the Ontario chief physician said hospitalizations would peak in about a week.
There are currently 1,684 patients with the virus in Ontario hospitals, up from 1,591 yesterday and a significant increase from 1,130 a week ago.
Forty-six percent of current patients were admitted to hospital for COVID-19-related reasons, and 54 percent were admitted for other reasons but subsequently tested positive for the virus.
Of those currently in hospital, 212 are in intensive care, down two times from yesterday, but 27 more than a week ago.
The Ministry of Health says that 61% of patients in the intensive care unit were admitted to the virus, and 39% were admitted for other reasons, but were positive.
Eighty-one patients in the intensive care unit breathe with the help of a ventilator.
Chief Medical Officer Dr Kieran Moore told CTV News Channel yesterday that hospitalizations were expected to peak next week amid the sixth wave of the pandemic.
“We had a significant signal for wastewater last week, it just started to decrease. We are expecting a small wave of the Easter holidays, the Easter holidays, the long weekend that people had. And then the last piece is the impact on the intensive care units. “We expect all this big impact to happen in the next seven to 10 days, and then slowly and surely the risk will decrease by the end of May,” he said.
Health officials also reported 23 more deaths today in the past month. Four of these deaths were placed in long-term care homes.
The health ministry says one death has been removed from the province’s total today due to a cleanup of 12,728 deaths.
Ontario labs processed more than 20,000 tests yesterday, up 17.3 percent from 18.5 percent a week ago, according to the ministry.
The province also confirmed another 3,820 infections on Saturday, but the ministry said the number of cases could be higher due to data collection.
Health officials also maintain during this wave that the daily number of cases is underestimated due to limited free PCR testing.
Among recent cases, 2,420 received three doses of COVID-19 vaccine, 716 received two doses, 463 were not fully vaccinated, and 221 had unknown vaccination status.
On Friday, the province confirmed that it is extending mandates for masks in selected high-risk locations for at least another month and a half.
The mandates were due to be lifted on April 27th, but will now remain in force until at least June 11th. Risky indoor areas include hospitals, long-term care homes and transit.
Meanwhile, the province administered 35,549 doses of vaccine against COVID-19 yesterday.
To date, 90 percent of Ontario residents aged five and over have received one dose of COVID-19 vaccine, 86 percent have received two doses, and 51 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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