3 CASES IN SIMCOE AS FORD SAYS ‘NO WAY’ TO VACCINE PASSPORTS

SIMCOE-MUSKOKA — The flood of COVID cases may be over — down to a trickle of 3 today Simcoe — according to the health unit.

But on the eve of the second last stage of re-opening with 96 Delta variants of concern we’re not high and dry yet.

The three local cases are 2 in Barrie and 1 in Midland.

Good news heading in to the weekend with more restrictions being lifted and gathering rules allowing 100 people to meet outdoors.

And as restaurants ready to open their doors — again with some, but less, limitations — customers will welcome the chance to dine under cover without worry of rain hopefully the rest of summer.

Meanwhile today, with 143 new provincial cases, Premier Doug Ford has added his weight to SolGen Sylvia Jones who said yesterday Ontario won’t have vaccine passports. “No way,” re-iterated Ford at new LTC in Runnymede in Toronto. “We’re not going to have a split society.”

THURSDAY: COVID BY THE NUMBERS … 4 CASES IN SIMCOE-MUSKOKA  (4 YESTERDAY) … ONTARIO 143 AND 10 DEATHS (153-7) … TORONTO 20 (28), YORK 5 (5), PEEL 7 (19) … NORTH BAY-PARRY SOUND 2 (2) … PORCUPINE 4 (4) … (SOURCE PUBLIC HEALTH ONTARIO)

HEALTH UNIT HIGHLIGHTS:

  • 12,327 cases to date
  • 9 new cases this week, 21 last week, which was 43% lower than the 37 cases the week before.
  • 3 deaths in July, 6 in June
  • 3,997 Alpha variants, 166 Gamma, 34 Beta, 96 Delta
  • 671 cases await confirmation of VOC
  • 679,400+ vaccines have been administered in Simcoe Muskoka
  • 405,225+ residents have received their first vaccine, which is 67% of the population.
  • 77% of adults 18+ have had one vaccine
  • 62% of youth 12-17 have also had their first vaccine.

 

IN OTHER COVID NEWS …

  • Sudbury test drove its new vaccine bus injecting 100 people with their second shot and two dozen with the first.
  • A week from the starting line of the Olympics Tokyo has 1,300 new cases — the most in six months.
  • Quebec, with 65 cases and 1 death today, is calling on residents who are booked for a second vaccine in September to look for ways to get inoculated earlier.
  • WHO is back looking for the origins of COVID-19 in Wuhan, where it has previously faced Chinese push-back and as the virus’s source is still in doubt.
  • U.S. EI apps down 26,000 last week 360,000 from a high of 900,000 January last.
  • Meanwhile, in Southern California cases are swelling like Pacific coast tides.
  • Also only in America, they are shipping 3.2 million J&J vaccines to the Philippines while buying 500 million more Pfizer shots to distribute around the world.
  • In Barcelona, Spain, where Delta is on the rise, towns and cities with populations of more than 5,000 and with cases counts of 400 per 100,000 per week face nightly curfews.
Parry Sound-Muskoka Green candidate Matt Richter, who was forced by the pandemic to give up his trail mix business and return to the classroom, said Tuesday that COVID-19 has also put the party’s school board integration plan on the backburner for now.

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