For the first time this year there are fewer than 200 COVID patients in Ontario's ICU beds.
Ontario hospitals are caring for 644 COVID-positive patients, including 199 patients in intensive care with COVID-related illnesses. The last time COVID ICU admissions were below 200 was Dec. 29, 2021, according to provincial reporting.
There were more than 600 COVID patients in ICUs at the end of January.
Today the province reported 13 new COVID deaths that occurred in the last month, and six more that occurred more than one month ago.
Over the course of the pandemic, province has reported 12,307 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 1,131,941 cases of COVID-19 since the start of the pandemic, and reported 1,104,237 cases recovered or resolved.
There were 2,395 more recoveries and 2,398 new cases confirmed through lab testing in today's report. New case counts are underestimated due to limited testing.
The March 17 updates provided by the province's public health agency and the ministry of health also reported the following data:
Hospitalizations
- 644 COVID-positive patients in hospitals, down from 649 reported yesterday. Of those, 53 per cent were admitted because of COVID-19 related illness and 47 per cent were admitted for unrelated reasons but still test positive for COVID-19.
- Among the hospitalized patients are 113 unvaccinated people, 17 partially vaccinated people, and 389 fully vaccinated people.
- 199 people are in ICU because of COVID-related critical illness, down from 204 reported yesterday. Of those, 48 no longer test positive for COVID-19.
- There are 97 patients on ventilators because of COVID-related critical illness.
- Among the patients in ICU are 35 unvaccinated people, four partially vaccinated people, and 66 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 14,648 tests for the latest report, resulting in a 12.3 per cent positivity rate.
Simcoe-Muskoka
Simcoe Muskoka District Health Unit reported four new deaths, 196 new cases, and one new hospitalization in its latest report published March 16.
There are 16 people from the region currently hospitalized because of COVID-19, with six patients in intensive care units.
Since the start of the pandemic, the local health unit has confirmed 36,778 cases of COVID-19 with 35,622 of those cases recovered and 427 cases ending in death.
The next health unit update will be published on Friday.
