Ontario COVID hospitalizations reach highest point in nearly 2 months, over 2,300 new cases

Ontario is reporting 2,336 new COVID-19 cases and 14 additional deaths on Tuesday.

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

There were 36,071 tests completed in the last 24 hour period, down from the 39,470 tests completed a day ago. Testing numbers are typically down earlier in the week.

The test positivity rate is 6.2 per cent, up slightly from one day ago. For the second straight day the province posts the highest positivity rate since Jan. 19.

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Locally, there are 727 new cases in Toronto, 434 in Peel, 229 in York Region, 194 in Durham, 144 in Ottawa and 123 in Hamilton.

There are 1,090 people hospitalized with COVID-19 in the province, and 387 in the ICU. Hospitalizations are up over 200 from one week ago while ICU patients are up 53.

It is the highest number of hospitalizations in the province since Feb. 4 and the highest number of ICU patients since Jan. 25.

New data from Ontario’s science advisory table indicates that the health care burden caused by this third wave will far surpass anything we’ve seen before.

The new report suggests the third wave of infections is already worse than the second wave — with variants of concern now accounting for nearly 70 per cent of all cases.

The table is now calling for a two-to-three week hard increase in restrictions to cut off what the table’s scientific director, Dr. Peter Juni, says is an out of control spread.

Unlike the second wave, the third is being driven by the more contagious variants of concern that are causing more severe cases in younger people.

The latest provincial numbers confirm 51 additional cases of the B.1.1.7 variant first detected in the U.K., six additional cases of the B.1.351 variant first detected in South Africa and eight additional cases of the P.1 variant first detected in Brazil.

There are now 1,800 cumulative cases of the B.1.1.7 variant, 69 cases of the B 1.351 variant, and 90 cases of the P.1 variant.

The province is reporting another 1,210 cases where a mutation has been detected but the exact lineage cannot be determined.

Education Minister Stephen Lecce says the delayed March break is still scheduled to happen on April 12 despite the fact that COVID-19 cases are higher now than they were when the break was initially delayed.

The government’s reasoning for pausing the original break was to prevent families from traveling around the province and potentially bringing back the virus into classrooms.

The Toronto District School Board sent an email to all principals and vice principals on Monday morning, asking them to be prepared to make the switch to virtual learning if any classes or schools need to be shut down.

There were 70,645 doses of the COVID-19 vaccine administered in the last 24 hour period.

As of 8:00 p.m. Monday, 2,102,380 doses of the COVID-19 vaccine have been administered.

Canada is expecting around 1.5 million doses of the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine from the United States today.

The shipments come as National Advisory Committee on Immunization (NACI) is now recommending a pause on AstraZeneca vaccinations for people under 55 due to safety reasons.

Toronto’s top doctor was out with a reminder on Monday that it isn’t safe to gather for the holidays, even for people who have been recently vaccinated.

Dr. Eileen de Villa says Toronto’s track record around the holidays is not good as case counts saw a considerable increase after Christmas, she fears that history is ready to repeat itself with Easter weekend approaching.

Ontario reported 2,094 new cases and 10 deaths on Monday.