Seven new COVID-19 outbreaks in city
All but five of 48 ongoing outbreaks were declared on or after Jan. 1
Hamilton saw 188 residents diagnosed with COVID-19 over the weekend, with public health declaring seven new institutional outbreaks.
Six patients and one staff member on the sixth floor of Hamilton’s Alternate Health Facility on King Street tested positive for the virus.
The facility is jointly operated by St. Joseph’s Healthcare Hamilton and Hamilton Health Sciences.
One staff member at Extendicare Hamilton, Good Shepherd Women’s Services and Sisters of the Precious Blood also tested positive, triggering outbreak declarations at those locations on Saturday.
On Sunday, public health announced new outbreaks at Chartwell Deerview Crossing Retirement Residence, Amica Stoney Creek and the Good Shepherd men’s shelter on Mary Street downtown due to one staff case at each facility.
As of Sunday there were 741 active COVID-19 cases in the city, with 48 ongoing outbreaks.
All but five of the current outbreaks were declared on or after Jan. 1.
The outbreak on the second floor of the Hamilton Health Sciences Alternate Health Facility worsened, with seven new cases added on Saturday to bring the total to 22.
The city reported no new COVIDrelated deaths over the weekend, leaving the total at 232. But a breakdown of the active outbreaks indicates that a sixth resident of Ma
The city reported no new COVID-related deaths over the weekend, leaving the total at 232
cassa Lodge, a city-run longterm-care home, has died.
City spokesperson Jasmine Graham confirmed the death toll at Macassa Lodge is now at six.
Graham said she couldn’t comment on this individual case, but said in general case numbers and death totals “are always subject to change and fluctuations” in data reporting as death investigations continue, data is transferred between health units, and cases are linked or unlinked to outbreaks.
In Burlington, public health reported 12 new cases for a total of 126 active cases in the city.
There remain six ongoing outbreaks in Burlington, the latest declared Jan. 17 at Billings Court Manor.
As of Saturday morning there were 12 active cases on Six Nations of the Grand River, which raised its COVID-19 alert level and tightened restrictions last week in response to increasing cases.
Six Nations Health Services reported 13 new cases over the seven-day period ending on Saturday.
Of the 140 cases on the reserve since the pandemic began, 127 patients recovered and one died.
The Haldimand-Norfolk Health Unit’s COVID-19 information page was off-line over the weekend while staff transitioned to a new data reporting system. On Friday, there were 143 active cases in the two counties after eight new cases were reported, along with 43 recoveries.
Health unit spokesperson Matt Terry said all long-termcare and retirement residents in Haldimand-Norfolk who want to be immunized against COVID-19 have received their first dose of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine.
The provincial directive to stop administering first doses outside of those priority populations means some staff members have not yet been vaccinated, Terry said.
Across Ontario there were 4,776 new cases reported over the weekend, with 102 deaths. Provincially, 88.3 per cent of COVID-19 patients have recovered.