Ontario reports 58 new COVID-19 deaths, hospitalizations decline for 3rd straight day

Ontario is reporting 58 new deaths related to COVID-19 on Saturday as the number of hospitalizations across the province declined for a third straight day.

Health officials note that the majority of the deaths reported were recorded over the past 13 days, with nine on Jan. 27, 17 deaths on Jan. 26 and the remaining occurring in the preceding days. However, two deaths were removed from the overall total due to a data cleanup.

While it is the fewest number of deaths reported since the beginning of the week, it brings the total number for the past seven days to 444 – the highest weekly total since the pandemic started. More than 1,100 COVID-19 deaths have been recorded since the start of the year.

There are 3,439 patients in hospital due to COVID-19 with 597 of those patients in the ICU. Of those in hospital, the province says 55 per cent were admitted due to COVID while 82 per cent of patients in critical care are there due to the virus.

The seven day rolling average of critical care patients sits at just under 600.

Health officials confirmed 4,855 new cases of COVID-19, however that number is underreported due to changes in the province’s testing policy.

A total of 29,241 tests were completed over the last 24-hour period with a positivity rate of 13.9 per cent – that is the lowest level reported since Dec. 22. There are almost 11,000 waiting to be processed.

The province administered 87,121 doses of COVID vaccines on Friday – the highest single-day number of shots in a week. That included just over 20,000 second doses and 58,812 booster shots.

According to health officials, almost 92 per cent of Ontarians aged 12 and up have received at least one dose of the vaccine while 89 per cent are fully vaccinated.