Nearly half of Ontarians hospitalized with COVID-19 were admitted for other reasons

New data shared by Minister of Health Christine Elliott notes that almost half of patients hospitalized with COVID-19 in Ontario were admitted for other reasons but tested positive for the virus.

The Ontario Hospital Association reported that on Tuesday that of the 477 people currently in ICUs throughout the province because of COVID-19, 80 adults were admitted in the last 24 hours, breaking a provincial record.

In Ontario, 3,220 people are hospitalized with #COVID19. 54% were admitted to the hospital for COVID-19 and 46% were admitted for other reasons but have tested positive for COVID-19.

— Christine Elliott (@celliottability) January 11, 2022

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Minister Elliott additionally shared that 17% of the patients in ICUs were also admitted for other reasons, but had tested positive.

“We are updating Ontario’s public reporting to distinguish patients hospitalized due to #COVID19 from those admitted for other reasons with COVID-19,” she said, adding that while the newly shared statistics don’t alter the graveness of the situation in Ontario’s hospitals, it is important to share this data “to provide additional context on the state of the pandemic.”

This information will begin to be reported on the province’s COVID-19 hospitalizations tab starting tomorrow.

Meanwhile, Critical Care Services Ontario reported that 465 of ICU patients in the province are adults critically ill with COVID-19, and 249 are on ventilators.

Jan. 11 – CCSO is reporting 465 adult patients w/ COVID related critical illness (CRCI) in ICUs. 249 CRCI patients were ventilated. There were 80 new adult admissions, which is the highest # of admits in all waves. The 7-day rolling avg. of CRCI patients in ICU is 370. #onhealth pic.twitter.com/lEZfawWuj8

— Ont. Hospital Assoc. (@OntHospitalAssn) January 11, 2022

On Tuesday, the province reported a total of 7,951 new infections, 3,220 hospitalizations (an increase of 753 since Monday), and 21 deaths.

As of January 11, 28,693,247 doses of COVID-19 vaccine have been administered in the province, 141,000 of which were administered on Monday.