ICU admissions reach 7 month high as Ontario reports 40 additional deaths due to COVID-19
Posted January 16, 2022 10:18 am.
Last Updated January 16, 2022 7:13 pm.
Intensive care admissions are at a seven month high as the province of Ontario reports a third straight day of 40 or more deaths due to COVID-19.
Provincial officials say 3,595 people are in hospital due to COVID-19 on Sunday, however, hospitalization figures are generally underreported on weekends. A day ago, the number was just shy of 4,000. Two weeks ago, there were just over 1,100 patients in Ontario hospitals.
The number of patients in intensive care has climbed to 579, according to provincial data – totals that have not been seen since last June. Of those, 340 are currently on a ventilator – an increase of 21 from the previous day. The seven-day average of critical care patients in the ICU is just shy of 500.
Provincial health officials did not provide a breakdown Sunday of patients who are vaccinated or unvaccinated in either hospital or ICU settings.
An additional 40 Ontarians have died as a result of COVID-19, raising the provincial total to 10,605. It’s the third straight day and fourth in the last five in which the death toll has reached 40 or higher.
Provincial health officials confirmed 10,450 new cases of the virus on Sunday but health officials warn the number of infections is much higher due to the province’s testing capacity and accessibility.
A total of 52,676 tests were completed in the past 24 hour period for a positivity rate of 22.7 per cent. The province has a backlog of almost 47,000 tests.
The province administered 117,452 doses of the COVID-19 vaccine on Saturday – the fewest number of shots in six days. Of those, 11,471 were first doses while just over 95,000 booster shots were administered. Just over 91 per cent of Ontarians aged 12 and older have received at least one dose of a COVID-19 vaccine and 88 per cent are fully vaccinated.
Ahead of the return to in-person learning, provincial data shows just under 50 per cent of kids aged 5 to 11 have received at least one dose of the pediatric COVID-19 vaccine while 87 per cent of 12 to 17 year olds have gotten their first shot.
