Ontario reports 3 deaths, about 693 COVID-positive patients in hospital

The latest COVID updates published by the province reported three new deaths, and 1,074 new cases. 

Public Health Ontario has confirmed 1,114,284 cases of COVID-19 since the start of the pandemic, and reported 1,085,011 recoveries and 12,574 deaths.

The March 7 updates provided by the province's public health agency and the ministry of health also reported the following data:

Cases

• 1,365 recoveries since yesterday's report
• Among the new cases confirmed today are 146 unvaccinated people, 38 partially vaccinated people, and 827 fully vaccinated people. 63 cases were reported with vaccination status unknown. 
• The seven-day average incidence rate for cases is nine cases per 100,000 unvaccinated people, 7.9 cases per 100,000 partially vaccinated people, and 11.3 cases per 100,000 fully vaccinated people. 

Hospitalizations

• 693 people are in hospital testing positive for COVID-19.
• There are approximately 249 patients in Ontario ICUs with COVID-related illnesses, and 204 patients in the ICU currently testing positive for COVID-19.
• There are 111 COVID patients on ventilators because of COVID-related critical illness.
• Hospitalization data is incomplete on Sundays and Mondays as more than 10 per cent of Ontario hospitals do not report their bed census data on the weekends. 
• Vaccination status of hospitalized cases is not available on Sundays and Mondays. 

Vaccination

• About 86 per cent of the population over four years old in Ontario is fully vaccinated (about 12 million people)
• More than seven 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 

• Provincial labs processed 9,447 tests for the latest report, resulting in an 11.8 per cent positivity rate. 
• There are 3,374 tests still being processed

Northern Ontario 

In the north, there are 114 hospitalizations, down from 121 yesterday, according to provincial data. There are 18 people in ICU with the virus, which is the same yesterday, and nine people on ventilators, the same as yesterday. 

Not all health units update their websites over the weekend and the data for Northern Ontario health units is not up-to-date yet.