TORONTO – Another 23 died today in Ontario from Covid-19, while hospital admissions and transfers to intensive care seemed to give the first signs of stabilization: the Ministry of Health has in fact announced that the people present in the hospital are 3,887, of which 578 in intensive care. The employment level of today is therefore relatively similar to that of Sunday, also in light of the fact that some hospitals do not report employment related to Covid-19 on weekends (and Saturday, last day of reporting before the new week, they were 3,957 against 3,595 of Monday without the total number of the province).
Another 43 patients, on the other hand, started mechanical ventilation in the last 24 hours, bringing the total of ventilated patients to 343.
“After twelve days of public health measures, we are ‘denting’ the number of people needing hospital care,” Ontario Chief Medical Officer of Health Dr. Kieran Moore told Cp24, noting that hospitalizations are approaching to a general “plateau” and the growth rate of presences seems to be slowing down.
There are, however, some who are skeptical that Ontario has the data it needs to track where we are in the Omicron wave. “It’s harder to know why all of these (PCR) tests focus on priority areas, although there are some early indications that perhaps our number of cases is possibly decreasing,” said infectious disease specialist Isaac Bogoch. “A decline in positivity from 31% to 20% in the last two weeks does not necessarily indicate an improvement. It is difficult to know exactly where we are because we have no evidence of the tests,” said Dr. Bogoch, referring to the limits on access to tests decided in recent weeks.
Meanwhile, the provincial laboratories today processed 37 thousand tests: the lowest number of tests processed in more than a month. The positivity rate is now 24.2%. The cases detected are 8,521: a figure, as we repeat in each edition, does not correspond to reality since access to tests is extremely limited. Active and known cases in Ontario are now 94,614. With 23 deaths today, the total deaths since the start of the pandemic rises to 10,628.
For Quebec, another black day today: total hospitalizations increased by 81 units (+4 in intensive care): 303 patients were hospitalized and 222 were discharged. There are now 3,381 people hospitalized due to the disease and, of these, 286 people are in intensive care. Of the newly hospitalized, 192 have been vaccinated twice, 90 are unvaccinated, 10 have received a dose of the vaccine, and 11 are under the age of five and are ineligible for injection. Of the ICU cases, 16 were unvaccinated, 11 received double vaccination, and 2 received one dose.
But the worst figure is that of deaths: another 54 were recorded today and from Friday to Monday the death toll in the province was 171. Since the start of the pandemic, 12,364 people have died in Quebec. As for the new cases, 5,400 cases were reported today, but, as in Ontario, the figure is unreliable. The active cases (the known ones) are now 54,139.
Across Canada, this is the situation of hospitalizations: Ontario 3,887, Quebec 3,381, Alberta 822, British Columbia 646, Manitoba 481, Saskatchewan 162, New Brunswick 115, Nova Scotia 68, Newfoundland and Labrador 8, Prince Edward Island 5.