Ontario reports 89 more COVID-linked deaths over last 3 weeks
CBC
Ontario on Wednesday reported the deaths of 89 more people with COVID-19, which the province says happened over the last three weeks.
A spokesperson for the Ministry of Health said in an email that of the newly reported deaths, six occurred yesterday. Twenty-three deaths happened on Jan. 24 and an additional 27 came on Jan. 23, "with the remaining occurring in the preceding days," according to provincial spokesperson Alexandra Hilkene.
The province is now frequently providing death figures staggered over several weeks, though it is not clear why. Earlier in the pandemic, deaths that happened more than a month earlier were sometimes included in daily counts due to "data cleanups," but that doesn't account for the recent change in how the province is providing death figures. CBC Toronto has reached out to the health ministry for more information.
Ontario's official death toll stands at 11,160.
Meanwhile, the ministry logged a slight decrease in the number of patients with COVID-19 in intensive care units, from 626 down to 608. The drop of 18 is the biggest one-day decline so far in the ongoing Omicron-driven wave of the pandemic.
Roughly 83 per cent were admitted to ICUs for COVID-related illnesses, while 17 per cent tested positive for the virus after being transferred to critical care for another reason.
The total number of patients with COVID-19 in hospitals rose to 4,016, an increase of eight from the day before.
More to come.
