COVID-19 hospitalizations remain under 1,700 in Ontario, 20 new deaths
Posted April 29, 2022 11:01 am.
Ontario is reporting 20 new COVID-related deaths on Friday as hospitalizations remain under the 1,700-mark.
There are 1,679 people hospitalized with COVID-19 while 209 patients are in ICUs, of which 94 are on a ventilator.
A total of 12,812 people have died as a result of the virus. Provincial officials say 19 of the deaths were reported on Thursday while one additional death was added due to a data clean-up.
The province reported 2,760 new COVID-19 cases Friday from 19,235 tests conducted, for a test percentage positivity of 13.2 per cent. The number of infections is underreported due to limitations placed on the province’s testing capacity.
RELATED: COVID-19 clearly moving towards endemic phase, says infectious disease expert
The scientific director of Ontario’s panel of COVID-19 advisers has said multiplying the daily case count by 20 would give a more accurate picture.
A Toronto doctor told CityNews Thursday that with most indicators suggesting the sixth wave of COVID-19 has peaked across Canada, we may be close to switching from a pandemic phase to an endemic phase.
Dr. Isaac Bogoch, an infectious disease specialist with the University Health Network, says the virus isn’t going away anytime soon but Canada is in a much better position to mitigate severe outcomes and enter a stage of predictability.
An endemic is defined as a time when an infection is maintained at a constant level within a population. It is not an end to new infections, but a stage where the volatile waves of rising or falling cases are no more.
With files from Michael Ranger
