Ontario reports zero COVID deaths with hospitalizations down 15% in last week

Ontario COVID-19 hospitalizations are down nearly 15 per cent in the last week as the province reports another day of zero new deaths due to the virus.

Provincial health officials say there are 1,213 people in hospital due to COVID-19, however, not all hospitals report their data on the weekend. One week ago, the province reported 1,423 COVID patients in hospital.

There are 201 patients with the virus in the ICU, down from 10 one week ago. Among the patients in the ICU there are 87 breathing on a ventilator.

Monday marks the second day in May that the province has record no new daily deaths.

The province’s COVID-19 Science Advisory Table’s wastewater signal data suggests cases have been on the decline in the province for the past two weeks.

The province-wide COVID-19 wastewater signal for Ontario is a weighted mean of standardized, biomarker-normalized concentrations of SARS-CoV-2 gene copies across 103 wastewater treatment plants, pumping stations and sewersheds in the 34 public health units.

There were 1,206 new cases of COVID-19 reported, however, that number is underreported due to provincial limitations on testing. Ontario’s science table has said multiplying the daily case count by 20 would give a more accurate picture of the spread.

There were 7,702 PCR tests completed across the province in the last 24-hour period for a test positivity rate of 12 per cent. It is the lowest positivity rate in the province since March 20.

Of the new cases there were 167 individuals who were unvaccinated or partially vaccinated people, 219 people had two doses of the vaccine, 777 people had three doses and 43 people had an unknown vaccination status.

Toronto mayor John Tory formally ended the city’s municipal emergency COVID-19 declaration on Monday that had been in place since March 2020.

John Tory says the decision to terminate the COVID-19 emergency ruling was made in consultation with Toronto’s medical officer of health, Dr. Eileen de Villa.

De Villa says she is encouraged by the current COVID-19 indicators in the city. She says the Toronto’s numbers are either decreasing or holding stable, and there are signs of improvement in the health system capacity, weekly case rates, per cent positivity and wastewater signals.

“These are positive signs,” she says. “Coupled with this warmer weather it gives us hope that COVID-19 activity in this city will start to decrease.”

De Villa is recommending residents take advantage of the warmer temperatures by gathering outdoors as much as possible.