Indicators of COVID-19's impact in the province remain plateaued, with small rises and falls in the number of deaths, hospitalizations, and ICU admissions this month.
There are 161 COVID patients in ICUs, according to today's report, and 667 COVID-positive patients in hospitals across the province.
Between March 1 and 24 in Ontario, 196 people died after contracting COVID-19, and that's including 15 deaths confirmed in today's report that occurred within the last month.
Over the course of the pandemic, the province has reported 12,388 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 1,148,336 cases of COVID-19 since the start of the pandemic, and reported 1,118,196 cases recovered or resolved.
There were 1,818 more recoveries and 2,761 new cases confirmed through lab testing in today's report. New case counts are underestimated due to limited testing.
The March 25 updates provided by the province's public health agency and the ministry of health also reported the following data:
Hospitalizations
- 667 COVID-positive patients in hospitals, up from 661 yesterday. 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, but not in the ICU, are 123 unvaccinated patients, 23 partially vaccinated patients, and 402 fully vaccinated patients.
- 161 people are in ICU because of COVID-related critical illness, down from 165 reported yesterday. Of those, 38 no longer test positive for COVID-19.
- There are 89 patients on ventilators because of COVID-related critical illness.
- Among the COVID patients in ICUs are 30 unvaccinated people, three partially vaccinated people, and 66 fully vaccinated people (two or more doses).
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 17,654 tests for today's report, resulting in a 12.6 per cent positivity rate.
- Over the last seven days, the positivity rate has ranged between 12 and 13.4 per cent
Simcoe-Muskoka
In the last update published March 23, the Simcoe Muskoka District Health Unit reported three deaths, 214 new COVID cases, and four new hospitalizations.
There are 20 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 37,445 cases of COVID-19 with 36,117 of those cases recovered and 434 cases ending in death.
The next update for Simcoe-Muskoka will be posted by the health unit on Friday (March 25).
