TORONTO – Covid-19, slight decline in hospitalizations today in Ontario: 1,626 patients in hospitals due to (45%) or with (55%) Covid-19, against 1,662 yesterday. In intensive care instead there is a slight increase, from 203 patients on Wednesday to 207 today: here 62% are in the ICU due to the virus while only 38% were hospitalized for other reasons and then at the time of the entrance test in hospital discovered that it also has Covid-19. 

17 deaths were also recorded today, bringing the death toll in Ontario since the start of the pandemic to 12,678.

In the last 24 hours, another 5,038 positive cases have also been identified out of 20,840 tests performed (and reserved only for the “at risk” categories), with a positivity rate that reaches 18.3% from 16.8% yesterday. The active and known cases are now, officially, 32,082, up again – after the drop registered yesterday – compared to 31,080 on Wednesday. Numbers not very close to reality, given the limitation of “official” tests. And an increase is still expected after the Easter weekend which saw many people gather for the holidays.

Quebec today recorded another increase in hospitalized patients from 2,381 on Wednesday to 2,405 today. 88 people in intensive care, a decrease of 13.

The French-speaking province also recorded 2,909 new cases of coronavirus, but the daily count only takes into account the infections detected by tests limited to “at risk” groups, as in Ontario (21,532 the latest tests processed). On the 1,008 quick do-it-yourself tests self-declared by citizens in the provincial government portal, however, 817 were positive. Since the portal was activated, 154,127 out of 189,077 self-declared tests were positive. The active and known cases in Quebec are, officially, 28,517, up from 27,756 the day before today.

The number of victims is still high: another 38 today, bringing the total in Quebec, since the beginning of the pandemic, to 14,778.

Photo by JC Gellidon on Unsplash