Ontario COVID numbers: 615 people in hospital, 193 in intensive care

Ontario is reporting 615 people in hospital with COVID on Friday, with 193 in intensive care units, as figures continue to trend downward.

This is down by 29 for hospitalizations and a decrease of six in ICUs since the previous day. Last Friday, there were 717 hospitalizations with 238 in ICU.

The province recently began distinguishing between those who were admitted to hospital directly because of COVID, and those who were admitted for other reasons but tested positive for the virus.

Of the 615 people in hospital with COVID-19, 44.5 per cent of them were admitted because of the virus, while 55.5 per cent were admitted for other reasons but tested positive for COVID-19.

Of the 193 people in ICUs with the virus, 79 per cent were admitted because of COVID, while 21 per cent were admitted for other reasons.

Ontario COVID cases, deaths, vaccinations, recoveries, testing

Meanwhile, Ontario also reported 2,502 new lab-confirmed COVID-19 cases on Friday, though that is an underestimate of the true widespread transmission of the virus due to testing restrictions. The provincial case total now stands at 1,134,443.

The death toll in the province has risen to 12,313 as six more virus-related deaths were added. Friday’s report noted two deaths were removed from the total based on data cleanup.

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There are a total of 1,106,136 recoveries, which is around 97 per cent of known cases. Resolved cases increased by 1,899 from the previous day.

For vaccinations, of the aged 12 and older population, 90.8 per cent are fully vaccinated. First dose coverage stands at 92.8 per cent. Third dose immunization is at 55 per cent — more than 7.1 million Ontarians have received a booster shot.

For young children aged five to 11, first dose coverage stands at 55.3 per cent with 31.4 per cent who are fully vaccinated.

The province administered 14,246 doses in the last day.

The government said 14,198 tests were processed in the previous 24 hours. There are 4,856 tests currently under investigation.

The test positivity rate stands at 12.9 per cent.

Ontario’s Health Minister Christine Elliott also tweeted on Friday that she will no longer tweet daily COVID-19 numbers, but the information will be available online.

“With key indicators continuing to improve or remain stable & the majority of public health measures now lifted, today will be the last day I tweet the daily COVID19 numbers,” Elliott said.