50 LOCAL CASES SUNDAY, AS 80-YEAR-OLDS NEXT UP FOR VACCINE

Mark Clairmont | MuskokaTODAY.com

SIMCOE-MUSKOKA — On Valentine’s Day your sweetheart would have seen 31 cases of COVID in Simcoe-Muskoka.

Today, a month later, there are 50 cases.

And in the past week — Sunday to Sunday — there have been 324 cases, shows a look at provincial numbers.

Those eight days, March 7-14, cases were up, down and up again: 36, 48, 30, 31, 43, 43, 43 and 50.

They’re part of a new mid-March trend emerging as Ontario begins its online vaccine booking service portal Monday for those “who are going to be 80” or older this year, Premier Doug Ford said today.

He added those aged 75 should be up next in April.

It will complement the existing one by the Simcoe Muskoka District Health Unit (SMHDU).

This as AstraZeneca says its studies find no threat of blood clots in its vaccine, as seniors with blood pressure problems were worried by worldwide reports this week.

The rise in cases this week was forecast by many medical experts who saw it as a third wave.

Across Ontario, 1,747 cases emerged today with 15 deaths.

Toronto jumped to 545, Peel 352 and York 163.

While North Bay-Parry Sound reported just one case, Sudbury saw 49 and Thunder Bay 40.

Manitoba had 44 cases and one death; Quebec 674 and 5 deaths.

IN OTHER COVID NEWS …

  • Canada’s top doc Theresa Tam says the country failed its elderly and vulnerable the first year of the pandemic.
  • America’s top doc Dr. Anthony Fuci wants Donald Trump to urge reluctant Republicans to get vaccinated.
  • U.S. clergy told the flocks today to “think of vaccines as part of God’s plan.”
  • After Amazon closed its package processing plant in Mississauga — agreeing to pay employee to quarantine after hundreds of COVID cases — factory workers and unions are calling for vaccines for them to prevent widespread virus spread.
Since last Sunday we’ve counted 324 cases on the province’s COVID website from 36 on Feb. 14 to 50 March 14.

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