Ontario COVID-19 hospitalizations are down week-over-week as the province reports zero new deaths from the virus.
It is the first time the province has reported no daily deaths since April 4.
Provincial officials are reporting 1,423 people hospitalized with the virus, down slightly from 1,455 last Monday. Hospital indicators in the sixth wave appear to have peaked in recent days after steadily climbing over the last month.
There are 211 COVID patients in the ICU with 90 currently on a ventilator. Both numbers are down from 219 and 97 last week.
Source: @jkwan_md
There were another 1,275 new infections reported but the actual number of cases is estimated to be much higher due to Ontario’s PCR testing capacity.
The province processed 11,849 tests in the last 24-hour period for a test positivity rate of 14 per cent.
Ontario’s Chief Medical Officer predicted “another rough week ahead” last week, but speculated hospital indicators would begin to stabilize at some point this week.
A Toronto doctor told CityNews Thursday that with most indicators suggesting the sixth wave of COVID-19 has peaked across Canada, we may be close to switching from a pandemic phase to an endemic phase.
Dr. Isaac Bogoch, an infectious disease specialist with the University Health Network, says the virus isn’t going away anytime soon but Canada is in a much better position to mitigate severe outcomes and enter a stage of predictability.
An endemic is defined as a time when an infection is maintained at a constant level within a population. It is not an end to new infections, but a stage where the volatile waves of rising or falling cases are no more.
The province recently extended its mask mandate in health-care settings, long-term care homes, shelters and public transit until June 11. It was originally set to expire on April 27. Masking requirements in all other settings were lifted on March 1 — prior to the recent surge of sixth wave infections.