About eight per cent of the province's total ICU beds are occupied by patients hospitalized because of COVID, according to the latest COVID update published March 18.
Ontario hospitals are caring for 619 COVID-positive patients, including 193 patients in intensive care with COVID-related illnesses.
About 30 per cent of the province's adult ICU beds are available and the remaining 62 per cent is filled with patients hospitalized for reasons not related to COVID-19.
Today the province reported eight new COVID deaths that occurred in the last month, and two more that occurred more than one month ago.
Over the course of the pandemic, province has reported 12,313 deaths that were either caused by COVID, COVID was a contributing factor to the death, or the cause of death was unknown or missing.
As of today, Public Health Ontario has confirmed 1,134,443 cases of COVID-19 since the start of the pandemic, and reported 1,106,136 cases recovered or resolved.
There were 1,899 more recoveries and 2,502 new cases confirmed through lab testing in today's report. New case counts are underestimated due to limited testing.
The March 18 updates provided by the province's public health agency and the ministry of health also reported the following data:
Hospitalizations
- 619 COVID-positive patients in hospitals, down from 644 reported yesterday. Of those, 45 per cent were admitted because of COVID-19 related illness and 55 per cent were admitted for unrelated reasons but still test positive for COVID-19.
- Among the hospitalized patients are 117 unvaccinated people, 18 partially vaccinated people, and 365 fully vaccinated people.
- 193 people are in ICU because of COVID-related critical illness, down from 199 reported yesterday. Of those, 45 no longer test positive for COVID-19.
- There are 97 patients on ventilators because of COVID-related critical illness.
- Among the patients in ICU are 34 unvaccinated people, three partially vaccinated people, and 60 fully vaccinated people.
Vaccination
- About 86 per cent of the population over four years old in Ontario is fully vaccinated (about 12 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
Simcoe-Muskoka
Simcoe Muskoka District Health Unit reported four new deaths, 196 new cases, and one new hospitalization in its latest report published March 16.
There are 16 people from the region currently hospitalized because of COVID-19, with six patients in intensive care units.
Since the start of the pandemic, the local health unit has confirmed 36,778 cases of COVID-19 with 35,622 of those cases recovered and 427 cases ending in death.
The next health unit update will be published on Friday afternoon.
