Ontario COVID hospitalizations remain over 1,000 for fifth day in a row

Ontario is reporting 168 people in ICU due to COVID-19 and 1,188 in hospital overall testing positive for COVID-19, according to its latest report released Saturday morning.

Of the people hospitalized, 45.3 per cent were admitted for COVID-19 and 54.8 per cent were admitted for other reasons but have since tested positive. For the ICU numbers, 63.6 per cent were admitted for COVID-19 and 36.5 per cent were admitted for other reasons but have since tested positive.

The numbers represent a 1.2 per cent increase in the ICU COVID-19 count and a 4.7 per cent increase in hospitalizations overall. So, 27.8 per cent of the province's 2,343 adult ICU beds remain available for new patients.

Given new provincial regulations around testing that took effect Dec. 31, 2021, case counts - reported at 3,797 on Saturday, up 11.6 per cent from the previous day - are also not considered an accurate assessment of how widespread COVID-19 is right now. Eleven new deaths were reported in the latest numbers.

HOSPITALIZATIONS BY VACCINE STATUS

A Star analysis of data shows unvaccinated people have been admitted to the ICU at a rate 2.9 times higher and in the hospital overall 1.3 times higher than people who have been fully vaccinated.

Because of Ontario's strong uptake in vaccines, fully vaccinated people account for a large percentage of the overall population. That means they would logically account for a higher percentage of people in hospital when looking at raw numbers.

Given the prevalence of the Omicron variant in Ontario, breakthrough infections among fully vaccinated people are common but early data from multiple studies around the world suggest symptoms are milder and serious complications are rarer than in previous stages of the pandemic.

The province warns that due to the way data is collected its hospitalization by vaccination status numbers may not match broader hospital data as reported on any given day.

Due to incomplete weekend and holiday reporting, vaccination status data for hospital and ICU admissions is not updated on Sundays, Mondays and the day after holidays.

VACCINES

The province says 12,132,552 people have completed their vaccinations, which means they've had two doses.

That works out to approximately 91 per cent of the eligible population five years and older, and the equivalent of 87 per cent of the total population, including those not yet eligible for the vaccine.

The province says 7,214,769 people have received three doses of a Health Canada approved vaccine.

According to the Star's vaccine tracker, 12,614,225 people in Ontario have received at least one shot. That works out to approximately 93 per cent of the eligible population five years and older and the equivalent of 90 per cent of the total population, including those not yet eligible for the vaccine.

Ontario has administered 30,444 vaccine doses since its last daily update, with 32,177,268 vaccines given in total as of 8 p.m.

COVID-19 IN SCHOOLS

Ontario is no longer reporting COVID-19 case figures in schools or child-care settings. The province says one school has closed out of 4,844 schools province-wide or 0.02 per cent due to outbreaks or operational considerations. It does not include regional closures in a local public health unit area.

Note, data reported by the province often lags what's reported by individual schools and may cause discrepancies.

COVID-19 IN LONG-TERM-CARE

Meanwhile, the province is reporting that there is one new death in long-term-care so the number of residents who have died is at 4,298 in the latest report released by the province.

Ontario is reporting an increase of four long-term-care homes in outbreak, for a total of 80 or 12.8 per cent of the 626 LTC homes in the province.

This data is self-reported by the long-term-care homes to the Ministry of Long-Term Care. Daily case and death figures may not immediately match the numbers posted by the local public health units due to lags in reporting time.

Isaac Phan Nay is a breaking news reporter, working out of the Star's radio room in Toronto. Reach him via email: iphannay@thestar.ca