The number of COVID-positive people hospitalized in Ontario is up slightly today, according to the latest report by the province.
There are 661 COVID-positive patients in hospitals, which is up from 611 reported yesterday. About half of those patients were admitted because of COVID-19 with the rest being admitted for unrelated reasons, but still testing positive for COVID-19.
Between March 1 and 23 in Ontario, 182 people died after contracting COVID-19, and that's including seven deaths confirmed in today's report.
Over the course of the pandemic, the province has reported 12,366 deaths that were either caused by COVID, COVID was a contributing factor to the death, or the cause of death was unknown or missing.
As of today, Public Health Ontario has confirmed 1,145,575 cases of COVID-19 since the start of the pandemic, and reported 1,116,378 cases recovered or resolved.
There were 1,990 more recoveries and 2,561 new cases confirmed through lab testing in today's report. New case counts are underestimated due to limited testing.
The March 24 updates provided by the province's public health agency and the ministry of health also reported the following data:
Hospitalizations
- 661 COVID-positive patients in hospitals, up from 611 yesterday. Of those, 53 per cent were admitted because of COVID-19, and 47 per cent were admitted for unrelated reasons but test positive for COVID-19.
- Among those hospitalized, but not in the ICU, are 131 unvaccinated patients, 23 partially vaccinated patients, and 404 fully vaccinated patients.
- 165 people are in ICU because of COVID-related critical illness, down from 179 reported yesterday. Of those, 43 no longer test positive for COVID-19.
- There are 90 patients on ventilators because of COVID-related critical illness.
- Among the COVID patients in ICUs are 33 unvaccinated people, three partially vaccinated people, and 62 fully vaccinated people (two or more doses).
Vaccination
- About 86 per cent of the population over four years old in Ontario is fully vaccinated (about 12 million people)
- More than 7.1 million people in Ontario have had three doses of a COVID vaccine.
- 10 per cent of the eligible population (aged 5 and up) is unvaccinated
Simcoe-Muskoka
In the last update published March 23, the Simcoe Muskoka District Health Unit reported three deaths, 214 new COVID cases, and four new hospitalizations.
There are 20 people from the region currently hospitalized because of COVID-19, including five patients in ICUs.
Since the start of the pandemic, the local health unit has confirmed 37,445 cases of COVID-19 with 36,117 of those cases recovered and 434 cases ending in death.
The next update for Simcoe-Muskoka will be posted by the health unit on Friday (March 25).
