3 UNDER 18 TRAVELLERS IN GEORGIAN BAY AMONG 8 WITH COVID FRIDAY

Mark Clairmont | MuskokaTODAY.com

SIMCOE-MUSKOKA — As fourth wave fears rise — and regional cases remain below provincial thresholds to step forward — 3 Georgian Bay travellers under 18 with COVID isn’t good news for the third long weekend of the summer.

They are among 8 new cases the health unit reports Friday — five of them alone yesterday.

However, they amount to 23 cases this week, which is the same number as last week.

And they are among 226 cases Public Health Ontario reports this morning — along with 11 deaths.

Ontario is reporting overall that 80 per cent of those aged 12+ are at least once vaccinated.

Check that box as one of three criteria to advance to Step 4 of recovery.

The province says that can only happen if then 75 per of Ontarians are fully vaccinates; and all health units report least 70 per cent of their residents are doubled vaxxed.

But only 56% of Simcoe-Muskoka residents have had two vaccines.

According to the Simcoe Muskoka District Health Unit (SMDHU) website today, as of yesterday, July 29, more than 416,190 (or 69%) of Simcoe Muskoka’s residents have received at least one dose of vaccine, with over 338,490 (or 56%) of these individuals also receiving their second dose.

And about 78% of residents 12+ have received at least one dose of vaccine and 64% have received both doses.

Among kids 12-17 and 67% of youth 12 to 17 have received their first injection.

Furthermore, they break it down this way in a graph:

Total population: both vaccines 56%, one vaccine 13%, no vaccines 31%

Age 18+: both vaccines 65%, one vaccine 14%, no vaccines 21%

Ages 12-17: both vaccines 65%, one vaccine 15%, no vaccines 22%

Muskoka municipal vaccine numbers. (Health unit website)
Breakdown of vaccine age groups across Muskoka. (Health unit website)
Simcoe-Muskoka total number of vaccinated residents. (Health unit website)

FRIDAY: COVID BY THE NUMBERS … 1 CASES IN SIMCOE-MUSKOKA  (5 YESTERDAY) … ONTARIO 226 AND 11 DEATHS (218-3) … TORONTO 62 (38), YORK 13 (10), PEEL 24 (38) … NORTH BAY-PARRY SOUND 1 (0) …  PORCUPINE 3 (0) …

Another summer long weekend and another chance to get out and explore Ontario … and tap dad for ice cream money.

HEALTH UNIT HIGHLIGHTS:

  • 12,379 cases to date
  • 23 new cases this week, which is the same as last week, which was 44% higher than the 16 cases the week before
  • 4 deaths in July, 6 in June
  • 4,000 Alpha variants, 167 Gamma, 34 Beta, 186 Delta
  • 671 cases await confirmation of VOC
  • 762,720+ vaccines have been administered in Simcoe Muskoka
  • 416,190+ residents have received at least one vaccine, which represents 69% of the total population.
  • Currently 78% of the population 12+ have had at least one vaccine
  • 67% of youth 12 to 17 years of age have had their first vaccine
The health unit reports 23 cases this week, same as last.

IN OTHER COVID NEWS …

  • Mask sales up in U.S.
  • Quebec reports 138 cases and no deaths.
  • From B.C. to Tokyo to Israel cases are up, notably the Delta VOC.
  • And Canada’s top doc, Dr. Teresa Tam, is talking more seriously now about a fourth wave.
  • Blue Jays play first home game in Toronto tonight since Sept. 29, 2019.
  • Japanese cases spreading with four more areas join Tokyo with under emergency states after 3,865 cases Thursday and 3,300 Friday.
  • British expats are bemoaning a U.K. order that allows Americans of similar standing to return over ’ome to England and Scotland without isolating up arrival.
  • After Ontario’s new top doc Dr. Kieran Moore said a wave 4 could again divide parts of the province in to have and have not health regions, his provincial counterpart in Alberta, Dr. Dina Henshaw, is alienating the public and top politicians like Calgary Mayor Naheed Nenshi. He calls plans to open the economy “insanity.”
  • Israel will offer booster shots to those 60+ to bolster vaccines in the same way it says flu vaccines need to be re-enforced.
  • London, Ont., is begging people to take the Moderna vaccine off their hands and put it in their arms before they expire.
  • New York City cases have risen to about 1,000 a day, the most in a month.
  • U.S. regulators are surprisingly allowing AstraZeneca to resume production in the states after much of the Western world’s population officially and mostly un-officially rejects the controversial non mRNA vaccine.
  • American deaths are back up to about 2,000 per week for the first time in a month.
  • Pandemic poverty rates are at a record half what they were 18 months ago, according to a just out study. It claims there are seven million less jobs thanks to $1 trillion in government aid handed out.
  • Canada is expanding the CRB (Canada Recovery Benefit) and CEWS (Canada Emergency Wage Subsidy) programs to Oct. 23. CRB, which replaced CERB, is for people who don’t have EI benefits, will be extended to 54 weeks from 50 weeks and pays $300 to $500 a week.

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