TORONTO – The Covid “swing” continues its run, between ups and downs of ordinary hospitalizations and intensive care: today there were 639 inpatients in Ontario hospitals, a sharp increase compared to 551 on Monday, but those in ICU fell from 181 to 179. 

It should also be said, however, that of the 639 patients in Ontario hospitals about 47% were actually hospitalized due to Covid-19, while the remaining inpatients tested positive after being hospitalized for an unrelated disorder. The percentage of real Covid inpatients rises to 71% when it comes to ICU admissions.

The number of deaths remains high: another 7 today, bringing the death toll in Ontario since the start of the pandemic to 12,343. Inexplicably, the provincial health officials continue not to specify how many of these victims died from Covid or from Covid (and therefore from other diseases), after announcing – now ten days ago – that they would do it to give a more accurate picture of the situation. A picture that is difficult to provide also on the contagion front, since the tests have been reserved, since the beginning of the year, only for the “at risk” categories: today just over 10,400 were processed and 1,447 were positive, with a positivity rate of 12.2%. Most of the confirmed cases have been identified in people between the ages of 20 and 60. In addition, 116 cases concern children under the age of 12 and 247 cases involving children over the age of 60. Active and known cases in Ontario are now officially 16,283, down sharply from 16,405 on Monday.

Net increase in hospitalizations today for Quebec: 41 more inpatients, for a total of 1,043. It is the second consecutive day that hospitalization numbers have risen, since they dropped below 1,000 total on March 18. The vaccination status of the new inpatients is significant (100, while another 59 have been discharged): 57 are triple vaccinated, 16 double vaccinated and 14 unvaccinated, 1 received a dose of vaccine, 6 have an unknown vaccination status and 6 are under the age of five and are ineligible to receive the vaccine. The number of patients admitted to intensive care decreased by 2, for a total of 46 patients.

7 deaths today, bringing the total from the beginning of the pandemic to 14,272. Out of 10,762 tests (limited to “at risk” cases) analyzed, 1,383 were positive, with a positivity rate of 11.3%. About do-it-yourself quick tests self-declared by citizens in the Quebec government portal, out of the 743 entered today 631 are positive: in total, out of 115. 278 entered in the last two months 90,574 are positive. But the active and officially known cases are 13,325.

Photo by Mat Napo on Unsplash