TORONTO – With the arrival of data not provided by some hospitals over the weekend, the number of patients hospitalized for (or with) Covid-19 in Ontario rises: 914 those present today, against 849 on Monday and 842 on Sunday. 278 those in intensive care, one less than in the previous 24 hours. However, the number of infected in hospital remains under one thousand. 

Unfortunately, the number of deaths in Ontario is still high: another 18 today, bringing the total in the province, since the beginning of the pandemic, to 12,451.

On the contagion front, 1,176 new cases of Covid-19 were reported today, out of 13,087 tests processed in the last 24 hours (always bearing in mind that the tests are reserved for “at risk” categories): the positive rate of the province is 10.3 percent. In the Greater Toronto Area, officials reported 223 new cases in Toronto, 80 in the York region, 70 in the Peel region, 52 in the Durham region and 42 in the Halton region. In addition, 81 new cases were recorded in the Kingston area, 62 in Simcoe-Muskoka and 56 in Ottawa. All other regions reported fewer than 50 new cases. Officially, there are now 17,455 active and known coronavirus cases in Ontario. 1,881 healings today bringing the total of patients healed in Ontario to 1,073,281, while the total number of laboratory confirmed cases is 1,103,187.

Quebec recorded 14 deaths today, bringing the total since the start of the pandemic to 13,996. The number of pandemic hospitalizations fell to 1,439, a decrease of 7 patients in the past 24 hours. 90 hospitalized in intensive care (-4). 698 new cases registered – a number not representative of the situation as screening is limited to “at risk” groups – out of 15,067 tests performed. As for the results of the do-it-yourself swabs carried out at home by citizens and entered voluntarily in the special portal activated by the Quebec government, of the 387 results added today, 298 are positive. Officially, the active and known cases are 14,838, while the total number of infections since the beginning of the pandemic is 922,679 and that of the healed 893,845.

Alberta reported another 14 deaths over the weekend: the victims are people between the ages of 40 and 80 and bring the total death toll in the province since the start of the pandemic to 3,912. Since the beginning of the month, 295 Alberta residents have died with or from Covid-19, including 40 in the past week. The number of hospitalizations continues to decrease but the presence of patients in hospitals remains important: 1,224 (more than Ontario which has three times the number of inhabitants), of which 83 in intensive care units. The active and known cases in Alberta are now, officially, 9,188, of which 1,435 were detected over the weekend. However, the real number is higher, given the limits on access to tests that are also valid for Quebec and Ontario.

And tomorrow Alberta is moving into “Phase 2” of its reopening plan, which sees the removal of the capacity limits of closed rooms as well as the revision of the masking rules: the masks will still have to be worn on public transport, in the facilities of ongoing and acute assistance and within Edmonton as the city regulation regarding the use of face masks remains in effect.

Since the beginning of the pandemic, infections in Alberta have been 525,816 and healings 512,716.

Photo by Graham Ruttan on Unsplash