Ontario reports highest positivity rate in over 2 months, ICU patients on the rise

Ontario is reporting 2,094 new COVID-19 cases and 10 additional deaths on Monday.

It is the fifth straight day the province reports over 2,000 cases.

There were 39,470 tests completed in the last 24 hour period, down from the over 50,000 tests completed a day ago. Testing numbers are typically down early in the week.

The test positivity rate is 6.1 per cent, it is the highest positivity rate the province has reported since Jan. 19.

Locally there are 618 new cases in Toronto, 368 in Peel, 277 in York Region, 132 in Ottawa and 104 in Durham.

The rolling seven-day average increases to 2,094 cases. The average is up over nearly 500 since one week ago. The last time the seven-day average was this high was on Jan. 28.

There are 841 people hospitalized with COVID-19 in the province, and 382 in the ICU. Hospitalizations are up 28 from one week ago while ICU patients are up 84.

It is the highest number of ICU patients in the province since Jan. 26.

Over 400 ICU beds were occupied with a COVID-19 patient as of the end of last week. Ontario has approximately 2,300 total ICU beds but approximately 1,400 are occupied with non-COVID patients leaving about 900 beds left.

With 40 percent of non-COVID ICU beds now full, and with a reproductive rate around 1.2 meaning brisk exponential growth, some are again growing concerned with a lack of beds and a lack of trained nurses to staff them.

The province announced is moving another public health region into the “Red-Control” level of its COVID-19 response framework.

Middlesex-London will move from “Orange-Restrict” to the Red Zone at 12:01 Tuesday morning.

The decision was made after a request from the local medical officer of health because of concerning trends in the region’s case rate.

“It can go bad pretty quick,” a member of Ontario’s health table told 680 NEWS.

On Friday, Anthony Dale, the president of the Ontario Hospital Association (OHA), said the third wave is threatening the province’s intensive-care capacity.

Ontario Green Party leader Mike Schreiner released a statement Monday saying “we are on track to surpass the highest level of ICU admissions this week, one year after the pandemic first started. This is a clear indication that Doug Ford’s pandemic response is not working.”

There were 50,453 doses of the COVID-19 vaccine administered in the last 24 hour period.

As of 8:00 p.m. Sunday, 2,031,735 doses of the COVID-19 vaccine have been administered.

The latest provincial numbers confirm 124 additional cases of the B.1.1.7 variant first detected in the U.K. and fifteen additional cases of the P.1 variant first detected in Brazil.

There are now 1,749 cumulative cases of the B.1.1.7 variant, 63 cases of the B 1.351 variant, and 82 cases of the P.1 variant.

The province is reporting another 585 cases where a mutation has been detected but the exact lineage cannot be determined.

Ontario reported 2,448 new cases and 19 deaths on Sunday.