Ontario reports 1,588 COVID-19 cases and 19 deaths

Ontario reported 1,588 cases of COVID-19 and 19 deaths on Wednesday.

The reported positivity rate is 5.2 per cent, the lowest since Apr. 3. The province completed 38,422 tests in the last day.

Ontario is reporting 1,588 cases of #COVID19 and over 38,400 tests completed. Locally, there are 524 new cases in Toronto, 335 in Peel, 105 in Ottawa and 94 in York Region.

As of 8:00 p.m. yesterday, 7,431,638 doses of the COVID-19 vaccine have been administered.

— Christine Elliott (@celliottability) May 19, 2021

Here are the COVID-19 numbers for our region

There are 1,401 people in hospital with COVID-19 across the province. There are 735 patients in intensive care with 539 of them on ventilators.

Ontario hospitals have been given the go ahead to gradually resume non-urgent surgeries and procedures.

A memo from the Chief Medical Officer of Health says the move comes because of a downward trend in new cases, hospitalizations and ICU admissions.

“While these numbers remain high and we continue to see demand for health service related to COVID-19, we are beginning to see available capacity among community and hospital partners in some areas of the province. It is therefore important to make use of this available capacity to limit the long-term impacts on patients awaiting non-urgent care,” said the memo.

RELATED STORY: Ontario hospitals to ramp down elective surgeries amid increasing COVID-19 hospitalizations

A spokesperson from the Ministry of Health says the move is dependent on hospital capacity and will not be uniform across the province.

Ontario administered 145,461 vaccine doses on Tuesday. There are 456,784 people in the province who have received both required doses.

Another 3,119 cases have been marked as resolved.