Ontario reports 92 new COVID-19 deaths, second highest during pandemic

Ontario reports 608 people in ICU due to COVID-19 and 4,016 in the hospital who are generally testing positive for COVID-19, according to its latest report released Wednesday morning.

Of the people admitted to the hospital, 56 percent were admitted for COVID-19 and 44 percent were admitted for other reasons, but have since tested positive. For the ICU numbers, 83 percent was recorded for COVID-19 and 17 percent were admitted for other reasons, but have since tested positive.

The numbers represent a 2.9 percent decrease in the ICU COVID-19 score and a 0.2 increase in hospitalizations overall. 19 percent of the province’s 2,343 adult ICU beds remain available for new patients.

Given new provincial regulations around testing that went into effect on December 31, 2021, case counts – reported at 5,368 on Wednesday, 56.7 percent higher than the previous day – are also not considered an accurate assessment of how widespread COVID is. 19 is currently not. 92 new deaths were reported in the latest numbers.

HOSPITALIZATIONS BY ENTSTATUS

A Star analysis of data shows that unvaccinated people were admitted to the ICU at a rate four times higher and in the hospital overall twice as high as people who were fully vaccinated.

Due to Ontario’s strong uptake of vaccines, fully vaccinated people make up a large percentage of the overall population. This means that they will logically make up a higher percentage of people in the hospital when looking at raw numbers.

Given the prevalence of the Omicron variant in Ontario, breakthrough infections are common among fully vaccinated people, but early data from several studies around the world suggest that symptoms are milder and serious complications more rare than in previous stages of the pandemic.

The province warns that due to the way data is being collected, its hospitalization according to vaccination status numbers may not match broader hospital data as reported on any given day.

Due to incomplete weekend and holiday reporting, vaccination status data for hospital and ICU admissions are not updated on Sundays, Mondays and the day after holidays.

VACCINES

The province says 11,644,800 people completed their vaccinations, meaning they had two doses.

This works out to about 83.1 percent of the qualifying population of five years and older, and the equivalent of 79.2 percent of the total population, including those who are not yet eligible for the vaccine.

The province says 6,147,286 people received three doses of a Health Canada-approved vaccine.

According to the Star’s vaccine tracker, 12,431,738 people in Attario received at least one shot. This works out to about 88.7 percent of the qualifying population of five years and older and the equivalent of 84.6 percent of the total population, including those who are not yet eligible for the vaccine.

Ontario administered 79,059 vaccine doses since its last daily updatewith 30 245 859 vaccines given in total from 20:00

COVID IN LONG-TERM CARE

Meanwhile, 37 more residents have died in long-term care for a total of 4,009 since the pandemic began, in the latest report released by the province.

Ontario reports 10 fewer long-term care homes breaking out, for a total of 359 or 57.3 percent of LTC homes in the province.

These data are themselves reported to the Ministry of Long-Term Care by the long-term care homes. Daily case and death rates may not immediately match those posted by local public health units due to delays in reporting time.