Ontario sees COVID-19 hospitalizations drop by 322 people

Ontario is reporting 1,362 people in hospital with COVID-19 on Sunday and a further 212 in intensive care.

That is a decrease of 322 people in hospital compared to the previous day, according to data released by the provincial government. The number of people in an ICU remained steady.

Weekend hospitalization data can be lower because some hospitals only report data to the province on weekdays.

Ontario reported 1,684 people in hospital and 212 in intensive care on Saturday. The province did not report data last Sunday due to the Easter Sunday holiday.

Dr. Kieran Moore, the chief medical officer of health, estimated Friday that community spread of the virus’ sixth wave has peaked. He said he expected hospitalizations to continue to climb in the short-term.

There were 77 people in ICU on a ventilator Sunday testing positive for COVID-19.

Ontario also reported 4,098 of lab-confirmed COVID-19 cases on Sunday. That figure, experts say, is likely an underestimate of the true number of cases due to testing restrictions that limit access to PCR tests in the province.

The test positivity for results that were published on Sunday was 15.5 per cent. The new figure represents a decrease from the 17.3 per cent reported out Saturday.

A total of 1,242,158 cases have been recorded since the pandemic began. This number does not include rapid tests done at home, which are not registered in provincial case counts.

Six new deaths were reported Sunday. The provincial death toll since the pandemic began in 2020 now stands at 12,734.

According to the data, 91 per cent of those aged 12 and over are vaccinated against COVID-19 with two doses. The provincial data shows seven per cent remain unvaccinated.

In total, 32,593,138 vaccine doses have been administered in Ontario.