MUSKOKA LAKES GIRL AMONG 19 COVID-19 CASES TODAY — AND 69 THIS WEEK
Mark Clairmont | MuskokaTODAY.com
SIMCOE-MUSKOKA — Call her COVID #19.
A Muskoka Lakes girl who tested positive for the coronavirus is among 19 regional residents with the dreaded Delta variant.
The health unit says the under-18 child is under investigation after being reported yesterday with a first episode Tuesday.
She is among 510 cases the province is reporting Friday — and 21 they reported locally.
And 69 alone this week in the Simcoe Muskoka District Health Unit (SMDHU), which is among 28 of 34 health units reporting rising numbers.
This means Ontario won’t be moving to Step 4 before September as a fourth wave tsunami is on the horizon.
And lockdowns will continue.
That means relaxed mask rules will be ramped up in public.
Trains, planes — but not automobiles — will require vaccinations.
Federal workers like those in local prisons in Gravenhurst will have to get the shot, says Ottawa.
But that’s easy enough in Muskoka with pop-up clinics across the district the coming week.
With 93 active COVID cases in the region; and 20 new variants since yesterday bringing to date 249 Delta cases (53 of them active), SMDHU is again in trouble.
This after three weeks of Step 3, which is safely how long health experts say it takes for the effects of new restriction easements to show up.
Face guards are widely, openly and freely being discarded everywhere.
Where months — even weeks ago — people wouldn’t be caught not wearing a mask, now it’s an oddity to not see someone’s face on the street.
A more common sight is to see people feign protection on camera before and after uncovering themselves and revealing their true identity.
It should make for an interesting and federal election campaign.
One that’ll be a contest not so much in public — and be of personalities — but one of bot and sold Facebook and Facetime.
FRIDAY: COVID BY THE NUMBERS … 21 CASES IN SIMCOE-MUSKOKA (5 YESTERDAY) … ONTARIO 510 AND 4 DEATHS ( ) … TORONTO 129 (105), YORK 33 (70), PEEL 61 (64) … NORTH BAY-PARRY SOUND 3 (0) … PORCUPINE 0 (0) …
HEALTH UNIT HIGHLIGHTS:
- 12,487 cases to date
- 69 this week; 37 last week, which was 32% higher than the 28 cases starting July 25
- 0 deaths in August, 4 in July, 6 in June
- 4,000 Alpha variants, 168 Gamma, 34 Beta, 249 Delta
- 677 cases await confirmation of variant
- 805,003 vaccines administered
- 423,635+ residents one vaccine, which is 70.8% of population
- 80% of population 12+ have had one vaccine
- 70% of youth 12 to 17 years have also had one shot
IN OTHER COVID NEWS …
- Toronto’s northwest neighbourhoods — where many immigrants live — have the most infections according to city statistics.
- Canada is donating 10 million single-dose Johnson & Johnson vaccines to the international COVX distribution network.
- Flip-flops used to be associated with the beach, now it’s government and health care. Alberta is the latest as it rescinds advice to isolate if you test positive.
- In a seemingly surprise judgment U.S. Supreme Court Justice Amy Coney Barrett has sided with Indiana University in ruling in their favour for students to be vaccinated.
- Out of control Tokyo reported 5,773 cases yesterday and more than 10,000 country-wide.
- 26 Carnival Cruise travellers — and 1 staff member — tested positive before they were to port in Belize City Thursday.
- Israel is lowering to 50 from 60 the age for booster shots.
- In the U.S. they will also allow third shots for those with weakened immune systems and who have had organ transplants.
- Russia, which, too, was doing better till recently had 22,277 cases yesterday — 2,529 alone in the capital Moscow.
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