Ontario reports 3,220 patients with COVID-19 in hospitals ahead of briefing on health-care capacity
CBC
Ontario reported 3,220 patients in hospital with COVID-19 on Tuesday, as Health Minister Christine Elliott is set to provide an update on the capacity of the province's health-care system in the face of the fast-spreading Omicron variant.
Of the patients hospitalized with COVID-19, 54 per cent were admitted to hospital seeking treatment for COVID-19, while 46 per cent were admitted for other reasons but have tested positive for the illness, according to new dataset from the Ministry of Health. That data does not list a breakdown for previous waves of the virus for comparison.
The number of people hospitalized with COVID-19 has risen from 1,290 patients on the same day last week.
As of Tuesday, there are 477 people with COVID-19 in ICUs. That's a jump from 438 patients the day before and up from 266 one week ago.
Approximately 83 per cent were admitted to the ICU seeking treatment for COVID-19 and 17 per cent were admitted for other reasons but have tested positive for the illness, according to the dataset.
The ministry also recorded the deaths of 21 more people with COVID-19, pushing Ontario's official death toll to 10,399.
Meanwhile, the province reported at least 7,951 new cases of the virus Tuesday. As Ontario recently changed its guidelines to significantly limit who qualifies for a PCR test, the case total for today is likely a drastic undercount of the real situation. Ontario's COVID-19 Science Advisory Table estimates that roughly one in five cases are currently being confirmed by the province's testing regime.
For the 45,451 tests that were completed, Public Health Ontario reported a positivity rate of 24.4 per cent.
Elliott is set to speak on the province's health-care system capacity at 12:30 p.m., alongside Matthew Anderson, the CEO of Ontario Health.
The province's health-care system has been under growing strain in recent weeks due to the highly transmissible variant, which has also caused staffing shortages across several sectors.
The number of people in hospital with COVID-19 has skyrocketed, and there has been an overall surge in infections, even as the government limited access to testing to groups deemed more at risk.
Earlier this month, Premier Doug Ford invoked the potential for a "tsunami" of cases as he announced a temporary return to online learning for students.
His office told CBC News on Tuesday that students will go back to in-person classes on Jan. 17.
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