ICU health-care worker Jannikka Navaratnam cares for a patient inside a negative pressure room at the Humber River Hospital during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Ontario confirmed 10,000 people with COVID-19 have now died during the course of the pandemic, while officials are also reporting 687 new cases of the virus on Tuesday.

The seven-day average for cases, which helps level out peaks and valleys in the data, now stands at 794, which is the highest it has been since June 5.

In a tweet Tuesday morning, Minister of Health Christine Elliott said people who aren’t fully vaccinated make up 23.6 per cent of the province’s total population, but account for close to half of Ontario’s reported cases today.

COVID-19 has claimed the lives of Ontarians from all age groups and walks of life, but it has hit older residents hardest, with about 5,900 people aged 80 and over dying due to the virus, according to Public Health Ontario (PHO) data.

The median age of deaths has decreased through each subsequent wave of the pandemic, provincial data shows. From the first wave to the fourth, it dropped from 85 years old to 74.

Long-term care residents have been disproportionately affected, with about 40 per cent of all deaths in the province occurring in that population.

COVID-19 swept through long-term care homes in the first wave, leaving 1,937 residents dead in those first months — more than 32 per cent of all deaths in the province at that time, according to PHO.

Long-term care homes saw roughly the same number of deaths during the second wave, though by that time the virus was tearing its way through other populations and nursing home deaths represented 21 per cent of the second-wave total.

A report on the latest pandemic projections from the Ontario COVID-19 Science Advisory Table, which is made up of a panel of experts that has provided modelling and public health advice over the course of the pandemic, also notes that people with lower incomes, essential workers and visible minorities have experienced the highest risk of COVID-19-related mortality.

Science table warns public health measures needed

In a new brief released Tuesday, the science table called for public health measures to mitigate any influxes of critically-ill patients.

The group says Ontario’s critical care system does not currently have the capacity to accommodate a surge of patients like it did during the second and third waves of the pandemic, thanks to worsening staffing shortages, worker burnout, and health system recovery efforts.

“Recent modelling suggests that there may be an increased number of patients with [COVID-19 related critical illness] alongside influenza over the 2021/2022 winter months, driving an increase in potential ICU admissions,” the group says. 

“There is a growing ICU staffing shortage with increases in nurse vacancy rates in particular across the provinces’ ICUs. Burnout, which has been exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic and in particular impacts nurses, is a significant contributor to staffing shortages.”