ICU admissions rise as Ontario confirms 16,000-plus new COVID-19 cases

Ontario is reporting more than 16,000 new cases of COVID-19 on Sunday as the number of ICU admissions continues to rise.

Provincial officials confirm 16,714 new infections which is a sharp decrease from the record 18,445 cases that were reported the previous day. However, the number of COVID cases is underreported after Ontario changed testing requirements just as cases linked to the Omicron variant are soaring.

According to data from Public Health Ontario, the majority of the new infections are in individuals aged 20 to 39 (6,788) while 1,704 of the new cases are in children under the age of 12.

The province says there are 1,117 people in hospital as a result of COVID-19, however, those numbers are also underreported on weekends. Health officials reported there were 1,314 hospitalized with the virus on Saturday.

ICU admissions continue to rise with 224 people in critical care as a result of COVID-19, an increase from 214 the previous day. A week ago, there were 168 ICU patients suffering from COVID. The seven-day rolling average of patients in the ICU now sits at just under 200.

According to the Ontario Hospital Association, 112 patients with COVID-19 are on a ventilator.

Key data on the number of unvaccinated or vaccinated individuals in hospitals and the ICU due to COVID was not provided by the province. The number of tests completed, positivity rate and backlog in testing was also not available. The next complete update from the Ministry of Health is expected on Tuesday.

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Dr. Kevin Smith, president and CEO of the province’s University Health Network, tweeted Saturday about “the rapid and concerning growth” of hospitalizations. Tagging Health Canada, Smith asked how he could help get Paxlovid, Pfizer’s antiviral COVID-19 pills, “immediately” approved “for emergency use.”

“We need this powerful tool in our arsenal yesterday,” he tweeted.

Toronto reported 3,736 new cases of COVID-19, a decline from its record high confirmed the previous day. Peel Region reported a single-day record 2,182 new infections while York Region added 1,388 new cases.

An additional 16 deaths were reported – the third consecutive day the province has confirmed double-digit deaths due to COVID-19 and the most since September 8. A total of 10,222 Ontarians have now died as a result of the virus.

Provincial health officials say more than 124,000 doses of the COVID-19 vaccine were administered on New Year’s Eve and New Year’s Day. Almost 91 per cent of Ontarians 12-plus have received at least one dose of the vaccine while over 88 per cent of Ontarians are now fully vaccinated.

Files from The Canadian Press were used in this report