Local active case tally rises to nearly 90
Ross Memorial Hospital is limiting visits and providing medical-grade masks for visitors
Twelve new confirmed cases of COVID-19 in Peterborough city and county, Curve Lake First Nation and Hiawatha First Nation were reported Tuesday afternoon by Peterborough Public Health.
Nine cases have also recovered, the health unit also reported, with the number of active cases now at 89, up from 88 on Monday.
There has been a cumulative total of 399 cases, with 305 resolved and five earlier deaths.
Two cases were also removed from the case total on Tuesday; one because of a data entry error and the other was a case that was merged with another existing case.
There are now four outbreaks. Two of them were declared Dec. 23 at Riverview Manor retirement home in Peterborough and a Community Living group home on Romaine Street (where three residents and four staff members have the virus and another two residents and five staff members who tested positive have recovered).
An outbreak was declared Saturday at an unspecified workplace in OtonabeeSouth Monaghan Township, while another was declared Monday at another congregate living facility in the city.
The cumulative total of patients in the jurisdiction who have been hospitalized for the virus increased this week to 19, the health unit reported.
There were four patients with the virus at Peterborough Regional Health Centre as of Tuesday. All are patients in an in-patient unit, the hospital reported.
Curve Lake First Nation continues to have between one and four cases.
The health unit is also monitoring 177 people considered to be at high risk because of close contact with a confirmed case, down from 189 on Monday.
As of Tuesday, the health unit has received no word on when Peterborough might receive the COVID-19 vaccine, though there is hope it could come later this month.
More than 39,500 people, or 26.7 per cent, have now been tested for the virus at least once.
Third death reported in Northumberland County
A Northumberland County woman in her 60s who had tested positive for COVID-19 has died, the third COVID-19 related death in Northumberland County since the pandemic began in March.
The woman had tested positive on Dec. 27 and contracted the virus through close contact with a confirmed case, Public Health Ontario reported. Her death was reported Tuesday.
Seven new confirmed COVID-19 cases in Northumberland County and two more in the City of Kawartha Lakes were also reported Tuesday by the Haliburton, Kawartha, Pine Ridge District Health Unit.
The jurisdiction has now had 583 cumulative cases with 79 of them active.
The City of Kawartha Lakes has had 276 cases with 34 active, Northumberland County has had 274 cases with 41 active and Haliburton County has had 33 cases with four active. The jurisdiction has now had 35 cumulative deaths.
Another hospitalization was reported Tuesday by the health unit, bringing the total cumulative hospitalizations to 25.
The health unit is also monitoring 75 people in Northumberland County, 56 in the City of Kawartha Lakes and two in Haliburton County who are considered to be at high risk because of close contact with a confirmed case, the health unit report, along with 28 other high-risk contacts.
There are two outbreaks in the jurisdiction: one declared Thursday at Hope Street Terrace in Port Hope, a 97-unit Southbridge Care Homes long-termcare home where one resident and one staff member have tested positive, and another declared Friday at a Christian Horizons group home in Cobourg.
Ross Memorial Hospital in Lindsay has three in-patients who have tested positive for the virus as of Tuesday. The three are in isolation at the hospital.
On Wednesday the hospital is changing its visiting restriction to one designated visitor per patient with one visit per day, rather than one visitor per day, with each in-patient selecting only one person as their designated visitor. On Thursday, the hospital plans to begin providing medical-grade masks for all patients and visitors (visitors must wear their own cloth mask upon entry before being issued a medical-grade mask at the screening station).