Daily Ontario COVID-19 updates will cease for VillageMedia sites as of today. Our coverage will be moving to a weekly round-up format until further notice. To read the daily summaries from Ontario Health directly, visit their website here.
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There are 1,248 COVID-positive patients currently hospitalized in Ontario, including 163 COVID patients in intensive care units.
The provincial update included 14 more deaths that all occurred within the last 30 days. Since April 14, 372 people in Ontario have died because of COVID, with between four and 21 deaths per day.
COVID-19 has been the cause of, or a factor in, the death of 13,099 people in Ontario since March 2020, according to the province's daily reporting.
The daily update included 1,692 lab-confirmed COVID cases. Case counts are assumed to be underestimated because of limited PCR testing and only PCR results are included in the daily case counts.
Since the start of the pandemic, Public Health Ontario has confirmed 1,290,249 cases of COVID-19 and reported 1,259,578 cases recovered or resolved.
The May 18 updates provided by the province's public health agency and the ministry of health also reported the following data:
Hospitalizations
- Of the 1,248 people hospitalized with COVID, 38 per cent were admitted because of COVID-19 and 62 per cent were admitted for other reasons, but test positive for COVID-19.
- Included in the hospitalized patients, not in the ICU, are 142 unvaccinated people, 47 people with one dose of COVID vaccine, and 812 people with two or more doses of COVID-19 vaccine.
- 163 patients are in intensive care units with COVID-related illnesses, including 76 patients on ventilators.
- Among the ICU patients are 26 unvaccinated patients, 11 people with one dose of a COVID vaccine, and 69 people with two or more doses of a COVID-19 vaccine.
Vaccination
- About 86 per cent of the population over four years old in Ontario has two or more doses of COVID vaccine (about 12.1 million people)
- More than 7.3 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 12,233 tests, resulting in a 10.3 per cent positivity.
Simcoe-Muskoka
The Simcoe Muskoka District Health Unit reported zero deaths, two new hospitalizations, and 165 new COVID cases in its latest report published on May 16.
There are 34 people from the region currently hospitalized because of COVID-19, including three in the ICU. This number does not include people who were hospitalized for other reasons and also test positive for COVID-19.
Since the start of the pandemic, the local health unit has confirmed 44,979 cases of COVID-19 with 43,625 of those cases recovered and 482 cases ending in death.
The next update from the health unit will be published May 18.
