Ontario is reporting its lowest positivity rate on PCR testing in more than two months, as well as a week-on-week decrease in COVID-19 hospitalizations.
The health ministry says 8.4 percent of all samples processed by Ontario laboratories in the past 24 hours came back positive, the lowest number since February 22.
While officials have warned that the actual number of daily infections is likely to be up to 10 times the laboratory-confirmed number of 775 due to limited eligibility for PCR testing, the positivity rate still represents a positive sign as Ontario’s sixth emerges from the wave. Epidemic.
The pressure on Ontario’s healthcare system also continues to ease.
On Wednesday, the ministry reported that 1,082 people are now hospitalized with COVID-19. This is an increase from a day earlier when many hospitals did not report occupancy data over the holiday weekend, but down about 13 percent from this time last week.
The number of patients in ICU is also decreasing but it is very slow. There were 160 people in intensive care with COVID-19 on Wednesday, up from 163 last week and 176 the week before. The Ontario Science Advisory Table has estimated that at the current rate of decline it will take 259 days for the number of people in ICUs with COVID to halve, resulting in some pressure on hospitals, while virus activity remains low.
“The numbers are coming down very well, at least in the province. Hospitalizations are down, wastewater monitoring is indicating that we are at a low level (of virus activity) and things are going downhill in most provinces. So, you know, it’s a really nice little interval where it’s a little bit safer,” infectious disease specialist Dr. Susie Hota told CP24 on Wednesday morning. Watching the harvest happen.”
The peak of the sixth wave for hospitalizations was back on May 3 when 1,699 people with COVID-19 were admitted to Ontario hospitals.
Most public health indicators have been trending downward since then, although deaths have risen somewhat as a backward indicator.
On Wednesday, Ontario added another 11 net new deaths to its COVID-19 tally.
It has added 76 net new deaths since last week, bringing the total number of people who have died as a result of a COVID-19 infection to 13,175.
Wastewater monitoring, meanwhile, is pointing to a reduction in virus levels in most areas of the province. But preliminary estimates from the science table show a modest increase in the Northern Ontario and Middle East region of the province.
Hota told CP24 that people still need to do their own personal risk assessment given the current circumstances in the province.
However, she said the outlook for the summer appears positive.
“It’s certainly better now than it was a month ago in terms of risk exposure,” she said.
According to the latest figures, there are now 147 active outbreaks in long-term care homes, 90 in retirement homes and 51 in hospitals. All those numbers are down between 17 and 35 percent week-on-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.
