Ontario health officials report the lowest COVID-19 intensive care employment in the province in six months, as hospitalizations related to the disease continue to decline.
Health officials said on Saturday that 144 people in the ICU had tested positive for COVID-19. The last time the province recorded such a low ICU count was on November 28, when Ontario reported 135 people in the ICU.
The province registered 865 people hospitalized with COVID-19. Of those hospitalized, 40 percent are seeking care because of COVID-19, while the rest of the patients were hospitalized for unrelated reasons and tested positive for the virus.
In intensive care, 65% of patients were admitted for COVID-19.
Officials also confirmed 13 additional deaths related to the virus. Twelve of the fatalities occurred in the last 30 days, while one happened more than a month ago and was added to the cumulative count.
Three of those deaths were among long-term care residents.
Meanwhile, Ontario is reporting 1,144 new COVID-19 cases, bringing Ontario’s total from March 2020 to 1,301,018. However, health officials have warned that the figure is underestimated due to restricted tests.
With 11,297 tests processed in the last 24 hours, Ontario reports a test positive rate of 8.5 percent.