TORONTO -- Since the start of the pandemic, Canada has recorded over 49,000 hospitalizations due to COVID-19, according to data collected by the Government of Canada.
The data, as of March 15, shows that of those hospitalizations, nearly 9,000 patients were admitted to the ICU and approximately 1,600 patients required mechanical ventilation.
Jan. 11 saw the highest number of hospitalizations in a single day with 4,049 Canadians with COVID-19 in hospital beds.
“The increasing cases of variants of concern, which are more contagious and can also cause more complications, combined with the relaxing of restrictions, is allowing for the virus to spread significantly,” Dr. Jennifer Kwan told CTVNews.ca on Friday in a statement. “As cases increase, severe cases requiring hospitalizations will follow.”
When looking at how age comes into play, the data shows that there were more COVID-19 cases that have resulted in hospitalization in Canadians who were 80 years of age and older. However, when looking at ICU cases, there were a higher percentage of cases involving Canadians who were between the ages of 60-69 and 70-79. As of March 12, these two age groups combined accounted for just over 50 per cent of all ICU cases in Canada.
“Hospitalizations aren’t just in those 80 plus. There are actually many patients hospitalized that are under 80, and even in their 30s, 40s, 50s,” said Dr. Kwan, a Burlington, Ont. physician who has been graphing and summarizing Ontario COVID-19 data on Twitter daily since the start of the pandemic.
When considering the gender distribution of COVID-19 cases, hospitals saw a near-even amount of cases between males and females, aged zero to 19. For Canadians between the ages of 40-79, there were a higher number of male cases than female cases. For Canadians between the ages of 20-39, more females were hospitalized.
With exception to the 20-29 age group, overall there have been a higher percentage of male ICU cases than female ICU cases.
As of March 19, Ontario has more active hospitalized and intensive care cases over any other province or territory, recording 759 hospitalized cases and 309 cases in the ICU. After Ontario, Quebec has the second highest number with 504 hospitalizations and 99 intensive care cases. British Columbia follows, with 286 COVID-19 cases resulting in hospitalization and 85 patients in critical care.
“With variants spreading rapidly across the province, the province’s finite health care capacity remains at risk, particularly if we let our guard down,” Anthony Dale, President and CEO of the Ontario Hospital Association, said in a statement to CTVNews.ca. “We’re now in the third wave of the pandemic in Ontario and continued discipline is needed in the weeks ahead to combat this evolving virus.”
Note: The report by the Government of Canada notes that of the number of detailed case data received, the hospitalization status was only available for approximately 71 per cent of cases, therefore numbers may fluctuate.
