TORONTO – The number of patients in Ontario hospitals for Covid-19 drops below 2,000: it is the first time since the beginning of January. But there are still many deaths: another 44 today, bringing the total from the beginning of the pandemic to 11,988. However, the drop in hospitalized patients is substantial: at the moment, there are 1,897, therefore 162 fewer than yesterday.
We have to go back to January 4th to find fewer patients: 1,290 patients. Furthermore, only just over half of these are in Ontario‘s hospital for Covid-19, given that 44% of patients with the virus have been hospitalized for another reason and only tested positive at the time of the entrance test.
Intensive care patients are also decreasing: now they are 445 (yesterday they were 449) and of these 76% are actually hospitalized for Covid-19 (yesterday it was 80%). Today another 3,201 cases of Covid-19 were recorded, it being understood that the figure is an underestimate due to the limitation of access to tests to “at risk” categories only. However, the positivity rate drops slightly which, based on the 22,417 tests processed yesterday, drops from 11.9% to 11.2% in 24 hours.
Most of the cases reported today were recorded in Toronto (555), Peel Region (275) and Simcoe Muskoka (181). Other areas that have reported relatively high case counts include Ottawa (171), York Region (163), Windsor-Essex (145), Durham Region (135), Middlesex-London (132), Waterloo (127), and Hamilton ( 119). There are now 29,196 active and known cases in Ontario.
On the vaccine front, 92.1% of Ontarians over the age of 12 have now received one dose of the vaccine and 89.6% two. If, on the other hand, the entire population is considered vaccinable, therefore from 5 years onwards, 89% received one dose, 84% two and 47% three.
In Quebec, another 35 deaths were recorded today, bringing the total death toll since the beginning of the pandemic to 13,617. Hospitalizations are decreasing in the ordinary wards (2,312, therefore -36 compared to the day before yesterday) while they are increasing in intensive care (173, therefore +2).
The province also recorded 2,894 new coronavirus infections (count not representative of the real situation for limited access to tests, as in Ontario) based on 27,360 tests performed. But there is the portal of “self-declarations” to act as a “litmus test”: of the 74,459 rapid tests posted so far by the inhabitants of Quebec on the government website, 57,743 are positive. The active and known cases turn out to be – according to the “official” swabs – 33,961.
Meanwhile, the immunization campaign continues: now 89% of the Quebec population aged 5 and over has received one dose of the vaccine, 84% two and 48% three.
Finally, let’s see the state of hospitalizations in Canada, province by province: Quebec 2,312, Ontario 1,897, Alberta 1,615, British Columbia 893, Manitoba 570, Saskatchewan 332, New Brunswick 140, Nova Scotia 91, Newfoundland and Labrador 25, Prince Edward Island 12.
