New data indicates that 46 per cent of people currently in Ontario hospitals with COVID-19 were admitted for reasons other than the virus.
The Ontario government released the data after indicating for some time that it would begin differentiating between those who were admitted for COVID-19-related illness and incidental admissions.
“We are updating Ontario’s public reporting to distinguish patients hospitalized due to #COVID19 from those admitted for other reasons with COVID-19,” Health Minister Christine Elliott tweeted Tuesday morning.
“While this doesn’t change the serious situation in Ontario’s hospitals, it is important to share this data to provide additional context on the state of the pandemic.”
The province indicated that there are currently 3,220 people in hospital with COVID-19 — around 54 per cent of them were admitted because of the virus, while about 46 per cent were admitted for other reasons but tested positive for COVID-19.
The number of people in hospital with COVID-19 is up by 753 compared to Monday’s report, though the figure reported Monday was likely an undercount since not all hospitals report data on weekends.
Of those hospitalized, the province said 477 are in ICUs, which is up by 39. Around 83 per cent of those in intensive care were admitted because of COVID, while around 17 per cent were admitted for other reasons.
The province also reported 7,951 COVID-19 cases Tuesday, though that is an underestimate due to testing restrictions recently put in place. There have now been 896,248 confirmed COVID cases in Ontario since the pandemic began.
There were 45,451 additional tests completed. The positivity rate stands at 24.4 per cent.
Twenty-one virus-related deaths were also reported Tuesday, bringing the provincial death toll to 10,399.
A total of 747,289 COVID cases are considered resolved, which is up by 9,893.
There were 141,693 COVID-19 vaccine doses administered in Ontario on Monday.