Three more COVID deaths have been confirmed in the latest provincial COVID update, bringing the total number of deaths since March 1 to 207.
Over the course of the pandemic, the province has reported 12,405 deaths that were either caused by COVID, COVID was a contributing factor to the death, or the cause of death was unknown or missing.
There were 1,450 more recoveries and 1,741 new cases confirmed through lab testing in today's report. New case counts are underestimated due to limited testing.
As of today, Public Health Ontario has confirmed 1,155,046 cases of COVID-19 since the start of the pandemic, and reported 1,123,205 cases recovered or resolved.
The March 28 updates provided by the province's public health agency and the ministry of health also reported the following data:
Hospitalizations
- 655 COVID-positive patients in hospitals, up from 553 yesterday.
- 158 people are in ICU because of COVID-related critical illness, up from 157 reported yesterday. Of those, 34 no longer test positive for COVID-19.
- There are 92 patients on ventilators because of COVID-related critical illness.
- Hospitalization numbers are incomplete on Mondays and Sundays because more than 10 per cent of Ontario hospitals do not report to the bed census on weekends.
- Vaccination status of hospitalized patients is not posted on Sundays or Mondays.
Vaccination
- About 86 per cent of the population over four years old in Ontario is fully vaccinated (about 12.1 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
Testing
- Ontario labs processed 6,243 tests for the latest report, resulting in a 17.9 per cent positivity.
Simcoe-Muskoka
In the last update published March 25, the Simcoe Muskoka District Health Unit reported two deaths, 284 new COVID cases, and three new hospitalizations.
There are 15 people from the region currently hospitalized because of COVID-19, including three patients in ICUs.
Since the start of the pandemic, the local health unit has confirmed 37,713 cases of COVID-19 with 36,245 of those cases recovered and 436 cases ending in death.
The next update for Simcoe-Muskoka will be posted by the health unit later this afternoon (March 28).
