A re-examination of fatal cases of COVID in Ontario has prompted some changes in reporting from the province and updates to the total number of people who have died after contracting COVID-19.
According to data released by the province this week, about eight per cent of the deaths reported during the fifth wave of the pandemic (from Dec. 15 to now) were unrelated to COVID, which is "significantly higher than in previous waves."
In 60 per cent of the deaths during the fifth wave, COVID-19 was the underlying cause, in 20 per cent of the deaths, COVID-19 contributed to the death, and the cause of death is unknown or missing for a little more than 10 per cent of the deaths.
Overall, as of March 6, 2022, about 84 per cent of the deaths reported were either caused by COVID or COVID contributed to the death, and 4.2 per cent of people who died with COVID over the course of the pandemic, died from an unrelated reason.
The province is now only going to report deaths where COVID was the underlying cause, contributed to the death, or the cause was unknown or missing, but the person was positive for COVID-19.
Deaths unrelated to COVID will be excluded from provincial reporting.
For the next couple of days, there will be no daily reports on new deaths, the province is only reporting total deaths for the course of the pandemic, which dropped to 12,227 from 12,638. The drop is the result of removing some of the people who died from reasons unrelated to COVID from the cumulative total.
As of today, Public Health Ontario has confirmed 1,121,694 cases of COVID-19 since the start of the pandemic, and reported 1,093,499 recoveries.
There were 2,523 recoveries and 2,130 new cases confirmed through lab testing in today's report. New case counts are underestimated due to limited testing.
The March 11 updates provided by the province's public health agency and the ministry of health also reported the following data:
Hospitalizations
- 717 people are in hospital testing positive for COVID-19. Of those, 46 per cent of the patients were admitted because of COVID-19 and 54 per cent were admitted for other reasons but test positive for COVID-19.
- Of those hospitalized not in the ICU, 154 are unvaccinated, 30 are partially vaccinated, and 378 are fully vaccinated.
- 238 people are in ICU because of COVID-related critical illness and, of those, 51 no longer test positive for COVID-19.
- There are 134 patients on ventilators because of COVID-related critical illness.
- Among the ICU patients are 47 unvaccinated people, four partially vaccinated, and 73 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 seven 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 14,571 tests for the latest report, resulting in an 11.7 per cent positivity rate.
Simcoe-Muskoka
The Simcoe Muskoka District Health Unit reported one death, 71 new cases, and one new hospitalization related to COVID in the last update published March 10.
There are at least 23 people from the region hospitalized because of COVID-19, including seven patients in intensive care units (ICUs).
Since the start of the pandemic, the local health unit has confirmed 36,323 cases of COVID-19 with 35,174 of those cases recovered and 422 cases ending in death.
