The latest Ontario COVID update shows little change from last week with COVID-positive hospitalizations hovering in the mid-600s and ICU numbers coming in slightly below 200 patients sick with COVID.
Today the province reported seven new COVID deaths that occurred in the last month.
Over the course of the pandemic, the province has reported 12,343 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 1,140,865 cases of COVID-19 since the start of the pandemic, and reported 1,112,239 cases recovered or resolved.
There were 1,562 more recoveries and 1,447 new cases confirmed through lab testing in today's report. New case counts are underestimated due to limited testing.
The March 22 updates provided by the province's public health agency and the ministry of health also reported the following data:
Hospitalizations
- 639 COVID-positive patients in hospitals. Of those, 46 per cent were admitted because of COVID-19, and 54 per cent were admitted for unrelated reasons but test positive for COVID-19.
- Among those hospitalized are 131 unvaccinated people, 23 partially vaccinated people, and 371 fully vaccinated people.
- 179 people are in ICU because of COVID-related critical illness, down from 181 reported yesterday. Of those, 42 no longer test positive for COVID-19.
- There are 93 patients on ventilators because of COVID-related critical illness.
- Included in the ICU total are 37 unvaccinated people, three partially vaccinated people, and 52 fully vaccinated people.
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
Testing
- Provincial labs processed 10,433 tests for the latest report, which resulted in a 12.2 per cent positivity rate.
Simcoe-Muskoka
In the last update published March 21, the Simcoe Muskoka District Health Unit reported zero deaths, 227 new COVID cases, and four new hospitalizations.
There are 21 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 37,246 cases of COVID-19 with 35,933 of those cases recovered and 431 cases ending in death.
