Ontario reports a fall of approximately 35 per cent week-on-week in COVID-19 hospitalizations as pressure on the healthcare system continues to decline.
The Ministry of Health says there are now 526 people hospitalized with COVID-19, including 114 people in intensive care.
This compares with the 808 COVID-19 patients who were in the hospital at the time last week, including 140 in intensive care.
Of these people, 78 are breathing with the help of a fan.
Hospitalizations for COVID-19 in Ontario have been on a downward trend for weeks after a sixth peak of 1,730 was reached in late April.
Several epidemiologists and public health experts have said that transmission is likely to remain low during the summer months, but that it could start to increase again in the fall as more people head inland.
In this context, other public health indicators such as positivity rates and the number of cases also continue to decline and are now at levels not seen in months.
Over the past 24 hours, 7.2% of all PCR tests have tested positive. That compares to 8.3% right now last week and 9.1% two weeks ago.
The latest data also point to a decrease in the handful of configurations with widespread access to PCR testing.
There are now 74 active outbreaks in long-term residences, 39 in nursing homes and 25 in hospitals.
That compares to 115, 60 and 35, respectively, last week.
Meanwhile, Ontario’s death toll continues to rise as the slowest indicator of COVID-19 transmission.
On Tuesday, the ministry added four new net deaths to its COVID-19 count, which now stands at 13,293.
He added 52 new net deaths to the count since then last week.
The numbers used in this story are in the COVID-19 Daily Epidemiological Summary of the Ontario Ministry of Health. The number of cases for any city or region may differ slightly from what the province reports, because local units report figures at different times.