A steady decline in the number of hospitalized COVID patients and COVID related deaths continues in Ontario, according to the latest update from the province.
Ontario hospitals are caring for 649 COVID-positive patients, including 204 patients in intensive care with COVID-related illnesses.
There were 1,342 COVID-positive patients in hospitals in Ontario on Feb. 17.
Today the province reported 15 new COVID deaths that occurred in the last month, and one more that occurred more than one month ago.
Over the course of the pandemic, province has reported 12,288 deaths that were either caused by COVID, COVID was a contributing factor to the death, or the cause of death was unknown or missing.
As of today, Public Health Ontario has confirmed 1,129,543 cases of COVID-19 since the start of the pandemic, and reported 1,101,842 cases recovered or resolved.
There were 2,060 more recoveries and 2,011 new cases confirmed through lab testing in today's report. New case counts are underestimated due to limited testing.
The March 16 updates provided by the province's public health agency and the ministry of health also reported the following data:
Hospitalizations
- 649 COVID-positive patients in hospitals, down from 688 reported yesterday. Of those, 47 per cent were admitted because of COVID-19 related illness and 53 per cent were admitted for unrelated reasons but still test positive for COVID-19.
- Among the hospitalized patients are 128 unvaccinated people, 18 partially vaccinated people, and 377 fully vaccinated people.
- 204 people are in ICU because of COVID-related critical illness, down from 220 reported yesterday. Of those, 49 no longer test positive for COVID-19.
- There are 103 patients on ventilators because of COVID-related critical illness.
- Among the patients in ICU are 36 unvaccinated people, four partially vaccinated people, and 62 fully vaccinated people.
Vaccination
- About 86 per cent of the population over four years old in Ontario is fully vaccinated (about 12 million people)
- More than 7.1 million people in Ontario have had three doses of a COVID vaccine.
- 10 per cent of the eligible population (aged 5 and up) is unvaccinated
Testing
- Provincial labs processed 15,702 tests for the latest report, resulting in a 12 per cent positivity rate.
