Ontario has confirmed a further 31 COVID-19 deaths, the highest number in the provincial tally in more than a month.
The latest deaths were reported by the Ministry of Health on Wednesday morning, bringing the death toll in Ontario’s two-year life toll to 12,889.
The province last reported more deaths on 6 April than today when 32 net new deaths were detected.
The good news is that other indicators are now showing signs of improvement, with the number of people hospitalized with COVID-19 falling week-on-week for the third day in a row.
There are now 1,698 people with the virus in hospital, down from 1,734 at this time last week. This includes 199 people receiving treatment in intensive care. There were 211 COVID patients in Ontario’s ICU at this time last week.
“We are moving in the right direction, but there is still a lot of COVID. It is getting better but it is still there. So I think in a public indoor setting like a supermarket, wearing a mask is a very reasonable thing to do to help protect yourself and the people around you,” said infectious disease specialist Dr. Isaac Bogoch warned during an interview with CP24 on Wednesday. Morning. “This wave is about to stop and things will get better in the coming week or two.”
drop in positivity rate
The latest wastewater monitoring data released Tuesday by Ontario’s Science Advisory Table showed a sharp drop in virus levels in most areas of Ontario, although virus activity in the Greater Toronto Area has largely stabilized and is only showing early signs of decline. has been
The data released by the ministry shows that the number of cases detected through PCR testing is declining rapidly.
Laboratories in Ontario confirmed another 2,488 new cases in the past 24 hours, up from 3,560 on the same day last week and 5,038 on April 21.
The positivity rate on PCR test in the last seven days is now 13.9 per cent. Last week it was 15.8 per cent.
Officials have warned that PCR testing is not a reliable metric to assess the total number of cases in the province due to limited eligibility.
Speaking with CP24, Bogoch said that while virus activity remains high, things are “clearly improving”.
He added that COVID is “unfortunately not going away” but should be more manageable as Ontario emerges from the sixth wave of the pandemic.
“Very few mitigation efforts are being done right now. You don’t have to wear a mask in most settings, there’s no capacity limit, people are living their lives and sure there’s a lot of COVID out there, but it’s not nearly the same as it was last year or this time. 2020,” he said. “She said I don’t think we should pretend for a second that it’s over. There’s still COVID out there, it can still infect people and it’s still there for vulnerable individuals, at-risk individuals and Prayers on communities at risk.”
While virus levels have been falling for a week, outbreaks continue to slow growth in some vulnerable settings.
The latest data shows there are now 217 active outbreaks in long-term care homes and 178 active outbreaks in retirement homes, up from 214 and 171 at this time last week.
Hospitals also have 101 active outbreaks, up from 89 last week.
The numbers used in this story are found in the Ontario Ministry of Health’s COVID-19 daily epidemiological summary. The number of cases for any given city or region may differ slightly from what is reported by province, as local units report figures at different times.
,
