Ontario reported another 3,128 cases of COVID-19 and 51 more deaths of people with the illness on Tuesday, as the number of active infections and hospitalizations in the province both reached pandemic highs.
There are now 25,840 confirmed, active cases of the illness throughout Ontario, and the seven-day average of new daily cases surpassed 3,000 for the first time.
Further, there are 1,347 people with COVID-19 in hospitals, 157 more than yesterday, which was the previous record.
Of those, 352 are being treated in intensive care and 245 require the use of a ventilator, both also all-time highs in Ontario.
Public health officials have said that about 350 admissions to Ontario’s ICUs is the threshold for when hospitals must begin postponing or even cancelling non-COVID-19 related care and procedures.
Meanwhile, Ontario’s network of labs processed just 35,152 test samples for the novel coronavirus — despite capacity for tens of thousands more — and reported a test positivity rate of 9.4 per cent.
The new cases reported today include 778 in Toronto, 614 in Peel Region, 213 in York Region, 172 in Durham Region and 151 each in Middlesex-London and Hamilton.
Other public health units that saw double- or triple-digit increases were:
- Windsor-Essex: 142
- Waterloo Region: 129
- Halton Region: 128
- Ottawa: 126
- Niagara Region: 101
- Simcoe Muskoka: 72
- Lambton: 62
- Wellington-Dufferin-Guelph: 46
- Eastern Ontario: 45
- Chatham-Kent: 39
- Southwestern: 35
- Brant County: 29
- Huron Perth: 21
- Haldimand-Norfolk: 18
(Note: All of the figures used in this story are found on the Ministry of Health’s COVID-19 dashboard or in its Daily Epidemiologic Summary. The number of cases for any region may differ from what is reported by the local public health unit, because local units report figures at different times.)
Combined, the new cases reported today push the seven-day average to 3,065.
Front-line health workers administered another 7,607 doses of COVID-19 vaccines yesterday, bringing Ontario’s total so far to 50,030.
Members of the province’s COVID-19 vaccine distribution task force are providing a technical briefing to media on Ontario’s updated vaccine rollout strategy this morning.
Notably, Premier Doug Ford is not currently scheduled to hold a news conference today. It has been 14 days since Ford last took questions from media.
Field hospital opens in Burlington
Ontario’s first field hospital built during the pandemic is taking patients this week as COVID-19 infections strain the health-care system.
The Burlington facility, built on the grounds of Joseph Brant Hospital, was ready to treat patients as of Monday.
The hospital said it’s responding to increased pressure on hospital capacity across the southern Ontario region that includes Hamilton, Niagara, Haldimand County and Burlington.
Rob MacIsaac, CEO of Hamilton Health Sciences, said opening the field hospital is a necessary step as the health-care system is stretched to its limits.
Hospitals in the region are identifying patients whose care has progressed enough to be treated at the field unit, after consulting with their families.
The field hospital was built in April as part of the hospital network’s capacity plan.
