UPDATE: ANOTHER HUNTSVILLE CASE AMONG 30 IN SIMCOE-MUSKOKA TUESDAY

Mark Clairmont | MuskokaTODAY.com

SIMCOE-MUSKOKA — Huntsville has its 82nd case of COVID today in a devastating week of reporting by the health unit, which also posted 29 other cases in Simcoe.

On Monday, Huntsville had 11 cases reported.

Muskoka’s largest town leads all six municipalities in the district, with Gravenhurst and Muskoka Lakes Township far back at 49 cases. Bracebridge has had 44, Georgian Bay 11 and Lake of Bays 6.

Tuesday’s case was a man aged 35-44 with close contact who was first reported yesterday and whose first incident was Saturday.

Dr. Charles Gardner said this afternoon that the 12 cases in Huntsville, which he called “fairly high,” are from “family clusters and individuals.”

The Simcoe-Muskoka District Health Unit (SMDHU) medical officer of health said that brings the town to 46 cases per 100,000 population per week.

The region-wide rate is 35 per 100,000, the provincial rate 40 per 100,000.

Gardner also said today that of the 658 variants of concern, a week-over-week jump from 527 the week before.

He said so far, 3 per cent of them have been in Muskoka as of today.

Muskoka now has 24 cases of variant, up from 16 last week.

Simcoe has also had one more death (187).

There are also 372 active cases, down from 468 last week.

And 18 people are still in hospital, 6 in ICU aged 40s to 90s.

The weekly case count as of Sunday is now 72, with 22 men and 8 women the past 24 hours.

HEALTH UNIT HIGHLIGHTS:

  • 225 local cases have been tested positive this week for the UK variant, 2 cases have tested positive for the P.1 variant of concern (Brazil) and an additional 455 cases have screened positive (awaiting confirmatory testing).
  • Approximately 51,000 doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine have been administered in Simcoe Muskoka, mostly to health care workers in local hospitals, long-term care and retirement homes.
  • This includes more than 15,700 individuals who have received both of the required doses of the vaccine.
  • In addition, 3,000 (or 94%) long-term care residents and 3,429 (or 94%) retirement home residents have received their first dose.
  • There have been 72 new cases reported to the health unit for the current week. There were 208 new cases reported to the health unit last week (week of Feb. 28), nearly 20% lower than the 255 cases reported for the week of Feb. 21.
The health unit is reporting the Brazil variant of concern today.

IN OTHER COVID NEWS …

  • Meanwhile, the province reported 1,185 cases and 6 deaths.
  • North Bay-Parry Sound 3 cases and Thunder Bay 39.
  • Toronto was down to 343, Peel up slightly to 235 and York down to 105.
  • Quebec continued its strong downward trend to 650 with 12 deaths. Manitoba reported 66 cases.

 

 

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