While no new deaths were included in today's Ontario COVID-update, hospitalizations and cases continue to rise compared to early and mid-March.
Since March 5, 2022, the province has reported 207 COVID deaths, with between four and 14 deaths each day. No new deaths were included in today's update.
Over the course of the pandemic, the province has reported 12,470 deaths that were either caused by COVID, COVID was a contributing factor to the death, or the cause of death was unknown or missing.
There were 1,697 more recoveries and 2,248 new cases confirmed through lab testing in today's report. New case counts are underestimated due to limited testing.
Ontario is reporting a high percentage of those tested for COVID are positive, with a 19 per cent positivity rate today.
That's up from about a 10-12 per cent positivity for much of the month of March, indicating higher levels of transmission of COVID-19 in the community while testing remains limited. A positivity rate of about three per cent or lower indicates testing is capturing most of the cases in the community.
As of today, Public Health Ontario has confirmed 1,174,686 cases of COVID-19 since the start of the pandemic, and reported 1,137,062 cases recovered or resolved.
The April 4 updates provided by the province's public health agency and the ministry of health also reported the following data:
Hospitalizations
- 857 COVID-positive patients in hospitals, up from 763 reported yesterday. The exact breakdown of patients hospitalized because of COVID-related illness versus for other reasons is not available today, but has been trending at about a 50/50 split.
- Hospitalization data is incomplete on Sundays and Mondays as more than 10 per cent of the province's hospitals do not report to the daily bed census.
- 168 people are in ICU because of COVID-related critical illness, which is up from 166 reported yesterday. Of those, 36 no longer test positive for COVID-19.
- There are 92 patients on ventilators because of COVID-related critical illness, up from 91 yesterday.
- Vaccination status for hospitalized COVID patients is unavailable on Sundays and Mondays.
Vaccination
- About 86 per cent of the population over four years old in Ontario is fully vaccinated (about 12.1 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
- Ontario labs processed 11,195 tests for the latest report, resulting in a 19 per cent positivity.
Simcoe-Muskoka
In the last update published April 1, the Simcoe Muskoka District Health Unit reported zero deaths, 364 new COVID cases, and four new hospitalizations.
There are 16 people from the region currently hospitalized because of COVID-19, including three patients in ICUs.
Since the start of the pandemic, the local health unit has confirmed 38,687 cases of COVID-19 with 37,030 of those cases recovered and 438 cases ending in death.
The next update for Simcoe-Muskoka will be posted by the health unit later today, April 4.
