270 REGIONAL COVID CASES TODAY; TRUDEAU SAYS TROOPS WON’T TAKE ON TRUCKERS

Mark Clairmont | MuskokaTODAY.com

SIMCOE-MUSKOKA — Justin Trudeau said he disagreed with Erin O’Toole, but wished him and his family well.

One thing they would have agreed on was not bringing the military in to clear truckers from Ottawa’s streets.

The prime minister said “that’s not in the cards.”

Doug Ford may say otherwise if some truckers move on from the nation’s capital to it’s provincial counterpart this weekend. Then Ford can maybe get two for the price of one by employing deployed reservists to finish clearing snow-packed Toronto streets.

This as Simcoe-Muskoka reported 270 COVID cases today, and 3 deaths including a Muskoka woman last month:

  1. Male 45-64, Simcoe, community, DOD – Feb 2
  2. Female 80+, Muskoka, outbreak, DOD – Jan 12
  3. Female 45-64, Simcoe, outbreak, DOD – Feb 1

They bring the region’s pandemic death toll to 358 over the past two years.

The Simcoe Muskoka District Health Unit also reported today 41 people in hospital and 7 in ICU.

Meanwhile, WHO’s director-general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus isn’t giving in to growing inevitability of COVID by the public.

“We are concerned that a narrative has taken hold in some countries that because of vaccines — and because of Omicron’s high transmissibility and lower severity — preventing transmission is no longer possible and no longer necessary,” Tedros said Tuesday.

“Nothing could be further from the truth.”

The World Health Organization said even countries with high levels of vaccination should not succumb to political pressure and release all of their coronavirus measures at once.

Yet it appears that at least two governments are.

Saskatchewan and Sweden are different hemispheres, but both share plans to lift all restrictions.

Scott Moe, premier of the western Canadian province, says he plans to end health limits on “rights and freedoms.”

It seems some politicians, like even Ford in Ontario, are preaching one thing and practising another as mounting evidence shows vaccines aren’t the be all and end all to COVID.

Fortunately most are doing what the majority believe is the right path to sustainability.

THURSDAY: PHO CONFIRMED COVID CASES: … 251 IN SIMCOE-MUSKOKA (168 YESTERDAY) … ONTARIO 4,098 AND 74 DEATHS (3,909-72); 2,797 IN HOSPITAL (2,939), 541 IN ICU (555) … TORONTO 673 (716) … YORK 137 (257) … PEEL 411 (362) … NORTH BAY-PARRY SOUND 37 (36) …

A snow rake is the best way to reach a steep pitch on roof trusses today as a big drop yesterday reminded everyone winter’s far from over. Though the next two days in to the weekend are supposed to be better – even if the groundhogs are at odds for an early spring.

 

HEALTH UNIT HIGHLIGHTS:

  • 32,324 confirmed cases to date
  • 584 cases this week
  • 1,306 last week, 28% lower than the 1,824 cases reported for the week of Jan. 16
  • 3 deaths in February, 64 in January, 10 in December
  • From July 18 to Feb. 2 the rate of COVID-19 hospitalizations among the unvaccinated vaccine-eligible Simcoe Muskoka population is 6 times higher than it is for those who have received at least two vaccine doses, the rate of COVID-19 ICU admissions is 11 times higher and the rate of deaths is 4 times higher.
  • To date, 467 cases have tested positive for the Omicron (B.1.1.529) variant of concern, and an additional 1,987 cases are considered suspect Omicron (awaiting confirmatory testing).
  • 1,247,404 vaccines have been administered
  • 494,569 residents have received at least one vaccine, which represents 82% of the total population
  • 86% of the population 5+ have had at least one vaccine; including 82% of youth 12 to 17
  • 48% of children 5 to 11 have also received at least one vaccine

Hopitalizations were down to 41 with 7 in ICU today.

IN OTHER COVID NEWS …

  • Quebec reports 2,637 cases and 93 deaths.
  • Africa’s top health official is on the move to recruit youth to encourage more vaccinations in the continent with 1.3 people with just 11.3 per cent of them immunized. So far they’ve had 10.8 million infections and 240,000 deaths from COVID.
  • Super Bowl fans will have to wear masks to watch the game live in L.A.
  • How do you get COVID in ICU? Ontario says 83 per cent of ICU admissions yesterday were for COVID. And 17 per cent for other reasons — but they ended up getting COVID.
  • Toronto’s public school board will spend $444,000 to $2 million to give kids one level 3 medical mask per day. Otherwise they can wear their own cloth mask.

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