COVID-19 hospitalizations hit staggering 10,000 patients as provinces set new records

A Global News analysis of provincial health data shows there are now 10,038 patients receiving care in hospital. Of those, 1,148 people are in intensive care units.

Hospitalizations due to COVID-19 across Canada surpassed 10,000 patients for the first time Monday, an alarming sign of the impact the highly-transmissible Omicron variant has had on the country’s health-care system.

A Global News analysis of provincial health data shows there are now 10,038 patients receiving care in hospital. Of those, 1,148 people are in intensive care units.

The country first broke its hospitalization record on Jan. 5, when the number of patients surpassed 5,000. That number has nearly doubled in just under two weeks, as several provinces break their own records and others come close to doing so.

Much of the current hospitalizations are being driven by Ontario and Quebec. Ontario reported 578 COVID-19 patients in intensive care units and 3,887 in hospital overall, up from 3,595 a day before. Quebec, meanwhile, reported a new record of 3,381 hospitalized COVID-19 patients, including 286 in ICUs.

Yet there have also been surges in other parts of the country. Alberta’s patient count on Monday surpassed 1,000 for the first time since mid-October, when the province was starting to recover from its deadly fourth wave of the pandemic. British Columbia and Manitoba set new records of 819 and 569 active COVID-19 patients, respectively.

Deaths, meanwhile, have also begun to rise. As of Monday, the seven-day average for new deaths from COVID-19 climbed to 116. Nearly 150 new deaths were reported Monday alone, though some occurred over the weekend.

Confirmed cases have begun to fall, meanwhile, giving hope that hospitalizations and deaths will soon follow.

As of Monday, the seven-day average of daily cases sits just above 29,300, down about 35 per cent from the record high of over 45,500 cases per day set nearly two weeks ago.