Ontario reports 639 COVID-19 hospitalizations and slight drop in ICU patients

Dr. Juni: 'We need to be careful' Dr. Peter Juni says that just because mandates are being dropped, doesn't mean people in Ontario should stop wearing masks.

There are 639 people being treated in Ontario hospitals with COVID-19 as of Tuesday, including 179 in intensive care, officials report.

The number of ICU patients represents a slight decrease from a day earlier while the number of hospitalizations has jumped. However, this could be attributed to a lack of reporting over the weekend.

Of the 639 patients in Ontario hospitals, about 47 per cent were admitted due to the novel coronavirus, while the remaining patients tested positive after being admitted for an unrelated ailment. That percentage jumps to about 71 per cent when it comes to ICU patients.

The province has also said that seven more people have died over the past month after contracting COVID-19, bringing Ontario’s death tally since the beginning of the pandemic to 12,343.

With just over 10,400 tests processed in the last 24-hour period, the Ministry of Health says the province’s positivity rate now stands at about 12.2 per cent.

There are 1,447 additional lab-confirmed cases of the novel coronavirus in Ontario, although due to testing restrictions this is an underestimation. In total, there has been 1,140,865 lab-confirmed cases of COVID-19 in Ontario since the pandemic began.

The majority of confirmed cases were identified in people between the ages of 20 and 60. There were 116 cases identified in children under the age of 12 and 247 cases in individuals over the age of 60.

The latest data comes as Ontario lifts masks mandates at schools, gyms, restaurants and retail stores. Face masks remain mandatory on public transportation and in the health-care sector.