Ontario reports total of 1,704 people in hospital with COVID-19, including 414 in ICU

CTV National News: Loosening restrictions With hospitalizations dropping, more provinces look to loosen COVID-19 restrictions. Avis Favaro reports.

Ontario health officials reported another drop in the number of people with COVID-19 in hospital and intensive care units across Ontario on Saturday.

The province said 1,704 people are currently in hospital with COVID-19, which is down from the 1,829 reported on Friday. The number of people in ICU also fell from 435 to 414.

The province also reported that 35 more people have died due to COVID-19.

A spokesperson for Ontario Ministry of Health confirmed 35 of the deaths reported on Saturday happened over the past 24 days.

The province said three of the deaths occurred on Feb. 11, eight of the deaths occurred on Feb. 10, four of the deaths occurred on Feb. 6, and the remaining 20 deaths occurred previous to that.

Officials said there have been a total 12,075 COVID-19-related deaths in the province since the start of the pandemic in March 2020.

The province reported that 53 per cent of the 1,704 people in hospital are primarily there due to COVID-19, while the remaining 47 per cent were admitted for other reasons but have now tested positive for the virus.

Eighty-one per cent of patients are in ICU primarily due to COVID-19, while 19 per cent of cases are there primarily for other reasons, but also have the virus.

The province said that 150 of the people in ICU are fully vaccinated, 117 are unvaccinated and 15 are partially vaccinated. The remaining 132 have an unknown vaccination status.

According to data released by the Ontario Science Table on Friday, which takes into account population sizes, people who are fully vaccinated with at least two doses are 83.8 per cent less likely to end up in hospital and 90.4 per cent less likely to end up in ICU compared to people who are unvaccinated.

The province reported 2,944 new cases of COVID-19 on Saturday, but health officials have warned that number is an underestimate due to testing limitations and backlogs.

With 18,985 tests processed in the past 24 hours, the Ministry of Health says the province's positivity rate is about 11.2 per cent.

In the Greater Toronto Area, officials reported 471 new cases in Toronto, 253 new cases in Peel Region, 146 new cases in Durham Region, 136 new cases in York Region and 104 new cases in Halton Region.

Officials reported 237 new cases in Simcoe-Muskoka, 158 new cases in Ottawa 127 new cases in Middlesex-London.

All other regions reported fewer than 120 new cases on Saturday.

The province said that of the 1,704 new cases reported today, 1,980 involve people who are fully vaccinated with at least two doses, 474 involve people who are unvaccinated, 136 involve people who are partially vaccinated and 354 involve people who have an unknown vaccination status.

Acknowledging population size, the science table noted on Saturday, people who are fully vaccinated with at least two doses are 60.2 per cent less likely to contract COVID-19 compared to those who are unvaccinated.

The province deemed 3,306 more cases of the disease to be resolved as of Saturday, bringing Ontario's number of recovered patients up to 1,030,423.

Today's report brings the total number of lab-confirmed cases in Ontario to 1,070,455.

The province reported 108 resident cases and 184 staff cases in long-term care settings across Ontario. It also noted that six of the 35 deaths reported on Saturday were long-term care residents.

Officials stated that at least 208 long-term care homes are currently dealing with an outbreak.