COVID-19-related hospitalizations in Ontario continue to decline as the province reports an additional 15 disease-related deaths.
Officials said Friday that 948 people who tested positive for the new coronavirus are being treated at the hospital, including 154 patients in intensive care.
Of the hospitals, about 41% are being treated specifically for COVID-19. The rest of the patients tested positive after admission due to other illnesses.
In intensive care, more than half of the patients, about 61%, were admitted due to COVID-19.
Officials also confirmed 15 additional deaths related to COVID-19. Fourteen of these people died in the last month, while the remaining death has been added to the total accumulated in a data recovery.
Eight of the people who died on Friday were residents in long-term care, according to officials.
At least 13,210 people in Ontario have died after contracting COVID-19 since the start of the pandemic.
With just over 13,300 COVID-19 tests processed in the past 24 hours, the Ministry of Health says the province’s positivity rate remains stagnant at 8.3 percent.
PCR testing in Ontario, which is used to calculate the province’s positivity rate and daily accounts, is still restricted to highly vulnerable or hospitalized individuals.
On Friday, officials say these tests yielded 1,096 confirmed cases of COVID-19 in the lab, bringing Ontario’s total since March 2020 to 1,299,843.