COVID-19: Ontario reports 2,336 new cases, 14 deaths

March 30, 2021NOW Staff

People walk by a COVID-19 testing sign at a hospital in Toronto

Ontario reported another 2,336 new COVID-19 cases and 14 more deaths on March 30.

The province detected 2,094 cases on Monday, 2,448 cases on Sunday, 2,453 on Saturday and 2,169 on Friday. The seven-day moving average is now 2,207, up from 1,667 a week ago.

Hospitalizations have hit a two-month high. There are are now 1,090 COVID-19 patients in hospital across the province, including 249 in intensive care units, according to provincial data.

Michael Warner, the medical director of critical care at the Michael Garron Hospital, said on Twitter that the province sent a memo to hospitals asking them to prepare for 115 per cent intensive care unit capacity.

The memo comes as the Ontario COVID-19 Science Advisory Table warned in a new report that the third wave will be worse than the second for hospitals due to fast-spreading variants of concern.

The number of patients in hospital is now 21 per cent higher than before the start of the province-wide lockdown in December, the report states.

The research also found that COVID-19 variants are associated with a 63 per cent increased risk of hospitalization, 103 per cent increased risk of intensive care admission and 56 per cent increased risk of death.

The @ongov claims hospitals have adequate critical care capacity.

Yesterday, hospitals received a memo requesting they prepare for 115% ICU occupancy.

A patient cannot be cared for in a bed we can’t staff.

We can’t wait for @ongov to meet the moment.
Stay home. pic.twitter.com/xmCHcQbkGI
— Michael Warner (@drmwarner) March 30, 2021

Meanwhile, labs in the province completed 36,071 tests in the past day, making for a positivity rate of 6.2 per cent.

Six regions reported daily case increases in the triple-digit range.

“Locally, there are 727 new cases in Toronto, 434 in peel, 229 in York Region, 194 in Durham, 144 in Ottawa and 123 in Hamilton,” Health Minister Christine Elliott said on Twitter.

Of today’s deaths, four were long-term care home residents and one person was between the ages of 40 and 59. To date, the virus has killed 7,351 people in Ontario.

Another 51 cases have confirmed positive for the B117 variant for a total of 1,800. To date, 20,117 cases have screened positive for variant mutations. The variant cases are confirmed by a two-part genomic testing

As of 8 pm, the province had administered 2,102,380 doses of COVID-19 vaccines.