Mark Clairmont | MuskokaTODAY.com

SIMCOE-MUSKOKA — COVID cases are up again in Muskoka and Simcoe today.

The health unit reports that 41 of the 524 regional cases are in Muskoka.

Including an outbreak among 5 residents at the Gravenhurst Manor on its main street.

Yesterday the district and region were reported to have had 480 cases, including 27 in Muskoka.

They are among 2,160 since Sunday, says the Simcoe Muskoka District Health Unit, which last week saw 3,538 the final week of 2021 and 1,643 the week leading up to Christmas.

Friday’s cases included 350 people who were fully vaccinated, 85 who weren’t vaccinated at all and 17 partially vaccinated.

Four more people landed in hospital overnight bringing the total to 36. Across the province 2,472 Ontarians are in hospital and 338 are in ICU.

Pines reports more cases Friday, remains in outbreak status

The District of Muskoka said late this afternoon that testing has confirmed additional COVID-19 resident and staff cases cases at its long-term care home, The Pines, in Bracebridge.

As a result the Pines remains in outbreak status until further notice, it says in a release.

They say currently, there are 10 active resident cases, and 2 resolved cases.

These residents are asymptomatic or have mild symptoms, such as sore throat, nasal congestion, or runny nose.

The home continues to connect directly with those families of affected residents and families.

Among staff there are currently 13 active cases, and 10 resolved (where a staff member has completed 10 days of isolation, or further PCR test results were negative.

All active staff cases are isolating at home, some with mild symptoms.

Muskoka hospitals postpone some non-urgent surgeries, appointments

This as local hospitals in Muskoka are temporarily postponing elective/non-urgent surgeries and procedures, and some non-urgent, scheduled outpatient procedures and clinic appointments.

They say as directed by the Ontario government, to preserve bed capacity and maintain safe staffing levels, Muskoka Algonquin Healthcare (MAHC) is temporarily postponing elective/non-urgent surgeries and procedures, and some non-urgent, scheduled outpatient procedures and clinic appointments.

MAHC, like many other Ontario hospitals, is responding to an Ontario Health requirement from earlier this week to identify existing services that can safely be reduced, suspended or relocated in order to preserve core acute care functions during the pandemic.

They say patients who have upcoming surgeries and appointments at MAHC will be contacted by their surgeons’ offices or the hospital if their surgery or outpatient appointment is cancelled at this time. These visits and procedures which will later be rebooked once the directive is lifted. If you do not receive a call from MAHC, your appointment is not cancelled. Some hospital outpatient clinics and Diagnostic Imaging appointments are continuing at a reduced capacity. Urgent and emergent surgeries, including cancer-related cases continue.

“We are following provincial direction to make these temporary changes to hospital operations in response to the concerning Omicron wave of the COVID-19 pandemic,” says interim CEO Vickie Kaminski.

“These temporary measures are meant to create capacity for potential acute care needs and allow us to redeploy staff to other areas in need. These are difficult times for the health sector, and we appreciate your continued support and understanding.”

Stay up to date on the COVID-19 situation and any changes to hospital services at MAHC at www.mahc.ca/COVID-19

Of the Muskoka cases, 18 were in Bracebridge, 17 in Gravenhurst, 5 in Huntsville and 1 in Muskoka Lakes Township.

They were:

Hydro rates halved Jan. 18-Feb. 8

This as the province announced today it is temporarily reducing hydro rates — but not for three weeks.

The price drop runs from Tuesday Jan. 18 to Tuesday Feb. 8.

Energy Minister Todd Smith said: “We know that spending more time at home means using more electricity during the day when prices are higher. That’s why we are moving to off-peak electricity rates 24 hours per day, seven days a week.”

That means a drop of 8.2 cents per kilowatt-hour — half the present peak daily rate.

It will automatically be applied to residential, small business and farm users.

However, for the next 10 days you’ll still be paying the current going rates — which of course are cheaper off peak hours after 7 p.m. when you can still reduce your costs by doing laundry at night.

This is in addition to new $10,000 Ontario grants going out to eligible businesses that have been impacted again by the latest round of restrictions.

HEALTH UNIT HIGHLIGHTS:

• 24,880 caseS to date
• 2,160 cases this week
• 3,538 last week (week of December 26)
• 1,643 cases week of December 19
• From December 22  there have been 7,008 confirmed COVID-19 cases among vaccinated individuals.
• 2 deaths in January, 10 in December
• 3,668 Delta cases
• 180 Omicron (98% of cases last week Omicron)
• 1,139,535 vaccines to date
• 487,230 residents have received at least one vaccine, which represents 81% of the total population
• 85% of the population 5+ have had at least one vaccine; including 82% of youth 12 to 17 years of age
• 41% of children 5 to 11 have also received at least vaccine

IN OTHER COVID NEWS …

• Snowbirds will be interested to know Florida had another record day of with almost 777,000 cases, including 9,000 in crowded hospitals.
• Canada’s Health Minister Jean-Yves Duclos says within weeks provinces could adopt broader vaccine mandates to try and staunch cases.
• 42,000: the average daily number of cases in Canada the past seven days as of Wednesday. Top doc Dr. Theresa Tam says the national positivity rate is 29 per cent. She adds hospitalizations are averaging out at 3,650, with almost 600 in hospital — increases of 91 per cent and 25 per respectively.
• Canada’s top union boss, Jerry Dias, wants “hero pay” returned to staff on the front line of grocers. Unifor’s president lauded NDP efforts to share pandemic profits grocers are reaping even as supply chain shortages are again dwindling stock on shelves.
• Kids under 5 in the U.S. are seeing more than their share of COVID hospitalizations.
• Montreal homeless shelters are the latest victim of staff shortages as staff contract corona.

EMAIL: news@muskokatoday.com

28 years of ‘Local Online Journalism’

Twitter: @muskokatoday, Facebook: mclairmont1

Leave comments at end of story

SUBSCRIBE for $25 by e-transferring to news@muskokatoday.com

Or go online to https://muskokatoday.com/subscriptions