Ontario is reporting its lowest positivity rate on PCR testing in more than two months, as well as a 13% week-on-week decrease in COVID-19 hospitalizations.
The Ministry of Health says 8.4% of all samples processed by Ontario labs in the past 24 hours were positive, the lowest figure since Feb. 22.
Although officials have warned that the actual number of daily infections is probably up to 10 times the laboratory-confirmed number of 775 due to limited eligibility for PCR testing, the positivity rate still represents a positive signal as Ontario emerges from the sixth wave of the pandemic.
Pressure on Ontario’s health care system also continues to decline.
On Wednesday, the ministry reported that there are now 1,082 people hospitalized with COVID-19. This is an increase from a day earlier, when many hospitals had not reported employment data over the holiday weekend, but it has dropped by about 13% compared to that time last week.
The number of patients in the ICU is also declining, but at a much slower pace. On Wednesday, there were 160 people with COVID-19 in intensive care, a decrease from 163 last week and 176 the previous week. The Ontario Scientific Advisory Board has estimated that at the current rate of decline, the number of people in the ICU with COVID will take 259 days to halve, leading to continued pressure on hospitals. that virus activity remains low.
“The figures are falling very well, at least in the province. Hospitalizations are declining, wastewater monitoring indicates we are at low levels (of virus activity) and things continue to decline in most of the province. So, you know, it’s actually a nice little interval where it’s a little safer, “said infectious disease specialist Dr. Susy Hota to CP24 on Wednesday morning.” Keep in mind that there is still COVID, we are still seeing cases appear “.
The sixth wave of hospitalizations peaked on May 3, when 1,699 people with COVID-19 were admitted to Ontario hospitals.
Since then, most public health indicators have been on a downward trend, although deaths as a delayed indicator have remained somewhat high.
On Wednesday, Ontario added another 11 new net deaths to its COVID-19 count.
It has added 76 new net deaths to the count since last week, bringing the total number of people who have died as a result of a COVID-19 infection to 13,175.
Meanwhile, wastewater monitoring continues to point to a reduction in virus levels in most areas of the province. But preliminary estimates from the scientific table show a slight increase in northern Ontario and the central-eastern region of the province.
Hota told CP24 that given the current conditions in the province, people still need to make their own personal risk assessments.
However, he said the outlook for the summer looks positive.
“It’s definitely better now than a month ago in terms of risk exposure,” he said.
According to the latest data, there are now 147 active outbreaks in long-term residences, 90 in nursing homes and 51 in hospitals. All these figures are reduced by 17 to 35 percent week by 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.