TORONTO – New leap forward in hospitalizations today in Ontario: 1,126 people in hospital with Covid-19, compared to 1,074 just 24 hours earlier. The last time the count was so high was on February 19, when the number of inpatients was 1,191. On the other hand, the number of patients in intensive care fell, from 168 yesterday to 159 today. But the number of pandemic deaths remains high: another 16 today, bringing the total in Ontario from the beginning to 12,527. 

Today 4,224 new cases of Covid-19 were also reported, out of 21,347 tests processed in the last 24 hours: the positivity rate is now 17.2%. In the Greater Toronto Area, 875 new cases were recorded in Toronto, 265 in the York region, 230 in the Peel region, 191 in the Durham region and 131 in the Halton region. Also reported 236 new cases in Ottawa, 235 in Simcoe Muskoka, 225 in the Kingston area and 221 in Hamilton. All other areas recorded fewer than 200 new cases. 62 cases among residents (and 15 staff) of long-term care homes across Ontario. Also 3 of the 16 deaths today are related to people living in retirement homes. There are still 109 structures in which there is an outbreak.

Now the active and known cases in Ontario are 26,929, an unrealistic number today due to the limitation of the official tests to the “at risk” categories only, but still higher than the 25,019 of the other. 2,838 instead the healings of today: since the beginning of the pandemic, the number of people healed in Ontario is 1,144,889, while the total confirmation of the casites is 1,184,345.

Even Quebec today recorded an increase in hospitalizations and 28 deaths: the total number of deaths since the beginning of the pandemic in the French-speaking province therefore rises to 14,482. In hospitals, 221 people have been covered and 179 people have been discharged in the last 24 hours: now the inpatients are 1,582 (+42). The number of people in intensive care, on the other hand, decreased by 2, for a total of 64.

3,777 new infections were also registered through tests reserved, as in Ontario, for the “at risk” categories. The positivity rate is now at 19.3%, but it is the official one and the reality is probably different as it seems to be inferred from the data relating to the quick-it-yourself tests that citizens enter in the self-declaration portal activated by the Quebec government: today, 1,646 tests were entered, 1,434 positives. Since the portal was activated, 127,430 of the 157,859 tests entered were positive.

Image by Michal Jarmoluk from Pixabay