The Department of Health says there are currently 790 patients with the virus in Ontario hospitals, up from 639 a week ago.
Forty-seven percent of hospitalized patients were infected with the virus and 53 percent were admitted for other reasons, but were positive for the virus, the ministry said.
It is the largest number of hospitalizations Ontario has seen since March 5, when 795 patients were admitted.
As the number of hospitals increases in the last week, the number of ICUs is decreasing.
Of those treated today, 165 are in the intensive care unit, up from 179 this time a week ago. Seventy-two percent of ICU patients were admitted to the hospital with COVID-19 and 28 percent were admitted for other reasons.
The Ministry of Health reports that seven of the deaths reported today occurred last month and two more than a month ago. Two of the deaths were residents of long-term care.
The province says there have been 12,414 virus-related deaths since March 2020.
Ontario laboratories processed more than 12,300 tests in the last 24 hours, producing a positive rate of 14.4%, up from 12.2% a week ago, according to the ministry.
Another 1,610 confirmed laboratory infections with coronavirus were reported today, but this is underestimated due to limited PCR testing in the province.
The Ontario Science Advisory Board reports that wastewater monitoring data show that transmission is increasing across the province and is doubling every 10 days.
Infections specialist Dr. Isaac Bogoch says that as the number of cases increases, the province is now in the sixth wave of the pandemic.
“It’s clear that there are more cases now than there were a week and two weeks ago. “We could call it a wave, we just do not know the size of the wave, but it is here,” he told CP24 on Tuesday morning.
“I think it is fair to say that we will see an increase (in some cases), it is just not clear how big it will be,” he added.
Of the latest cases reported today, 842 of the subjects received three doses, 431 received two doses, 232 are not fully vaccinated and 105 have an unknown vaccination status.
To date, 89 percent of eligible Ontario residents aged five and over have received one dose of COVID-19 vaccine, 86 percent have received two doses, and 51 percent have received three doses.
The numbers used in this story are in the Ontario Department of Health’s Daily Epidemiological Summary COVID-19. The number of cases for any city or region may differ slightly from that reported by the province, as local units report data at different times.
