FORD OPENS DOOR TO DIVIDING HEALTH UNIT, WITH 5 MUSKOKA CASES

Mark Clairmont | MuskokaTODAY.com

SIMCOE-MUSKOKA — Premier Doug Ford said this afternoon he’s willing to look at dividing the health unit.

That’s the most definitive he’s been publicly on the controversial and long-held local concern.

This as Muskoka had 5 new cases in Huntsville — all on Saturday.

They are among 16 cases reported since Friday. The other 11 were in Simcoe with 2 of them yesterday in Ramara with close contact.

Speaking in Bracebridge, where he announced “$16 million” for a new arena/library/community centre, Ford said the significant difference in case counts (11,798 and 463) doesn’t make sense for the health unit to have a district and a county.

The Huntsville cases included four women and a man. Four of the five were also all aged 45-64. Three were community acquired and the other two were a close contact and a man under investigation. Two had first episodes on June 19, the other three June 23, 24 and 25 the day the man was first reported.

An earlier case from Gravenhurst was moved to another health unit or considered a duplicate case.

The Simcoe Muskoka District Health Unit also now reports 51

Ontario was down to 210 cases — the province’s lowest number since September. Three more people also died.

After a “fun” world record vaccination of almost 27,000 Torontonians yesterday, the city reported 37 cases today (42 yesterday).

York dropped to 8 (12), Peel 15 (26), Porcupine 5 (16) and North Bay-Parry Sound 5 (16).

HEALTH UNIT HIGHLIGHTS:

  • 12,264 cases to date
  • 2 new cases reported to the health unit for the current week starting Sunday
  • 39 cases reported to the health unit last week, which is 39% lower than the 64 cases the week before, which was also the lowest weekly total since September.
  • 4 deaths in June, 18 in May, 25 in April, 12 in March
  • 3,985 Alpha variants, 164 Gamma, 32 Beta and 51 delta
  • 669 cases have screened positive confirmation of VOC
  • 541,500+ vaccines have been administered in Simcoe Muskoka
  • 390,650+ residents have received their first vaccine, which represents 65% of the population
  • 75% of adults 18+ have had one vaccine and 57% of youth 12-17 years have been vaccinated once
Health unit numbers to start the week ever more promising despite Delta concerns.

IN OTHER COVID NEWS …

  • Manitoba reports 61 cases, Quebec 76 and both had no deaths today.
  • A British study re-enforces similar studies in Germany and Spain that show mixing vaccines produce much stronger immune responses than two AstraZeneca shots.
  • Britain’s new health minister Sajid Javid says despite a Delta variant spike COVID in England will be brought under control by July 19.
Premier Doug Ford said today he agrees that differences in COVID numbers between Simcoe and Muskoka warrant at second look at whether the health unit needs a county and a district in it. (Mark Clairmont, MuskokaTODAY.com)

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