Ontario reports 29 COVID deaths, hospitalizations down 10% in last week

Ontario is reporting 29 COVID-related deaths on Wednesday with hospitalizations down 10 per cent from the same day last week.

Provincial officials are reporting 1,528 patients are hospitalized with the virus, compared to 1,698 a week ago. There are 176 COVID patients in the ICU, down from 188 from Tuesday and down from 199 a week ago.

Health officials are reporting 1,995 new infections detected by PCR testing, which is limited to specific groups. The estimated number of new cases is estimated to be much higher due to the province’s testing restriction.

Ontario’s Science Advisory Table has said multiplying the daily case count by 20 would give a more accurate picture.

There were 20,465 tests completed in the last 24-hour period for a test positivity rate of 11.3 per cent. It is the lower positivity rate in the province in more than two months, since March 10.

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.

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.

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