45 new COVID-19 cases in Niagara this weekend
Ontario reports 2,829 new diagnoses; 49 new deaths
Niagara Region Public Health reported 45 new COVID-19 cases this weekend — 29 Saturday and 16 Sunday.
At noon Sunday, the health department reported the region has had a total of 1,821 cases of the virus, up from 1,805 Saturday.
There are 206 active cases, down from 233 Saturday, while 1,537 cases are resolved, up from 1,494 Saturday.
At least 78 people have died in Niagara while infected with COVID-19. This does not mean the virus was the cause of death. Public health updates death data on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays.
There are 13 active outbreaks of the virus — down from 14 Saturday, while 65 outbreaks have been declared over, up from 63 Saturday.
Dr. Mustafa Hirji, Niagara’s acting medical officer of health, said a key takeaway from this weekend’s numbers is that infections continue to spread at a “relatively higher rate now than they were a while back.”
“We saw the jump into the 20s (cases a day), sometimes getting to 30s a couple weeks ago. It looks like we’re still, largely, in that range,” he said.
“There’s maybe some sign that we’re maybe heading closer to the lower 20s and higher 20s, which is good news, but nonetheless, that continues to happen.”
Hirji said as long as infection is spreading this widely, there’s always a risk infection is going to get into Niagara’s long-termcare and retirement homes, as well as people’s households.
He said those are settings where the virus can spread “much more easily,” putting people who are most vulnerable, such as the elderly, at risk.
“We’ve already had, unfortunately, seven individuals die in long-term-care homes this month from COVID-19, so there is definitely a price to pay in terms of human cost if this is a level we maintain things at.”
Hirji said the current infection rate is putting a strain on public health’s ability to “follow up with every case to its very limit.”
“If our cases still go up, we wouldn’t be able to do that effectively anymore and that would, of course, take away one of our most effective tools for limiting the spread of
infection.”
He said, fortunately, Niagara’s hospitalizations have stayed “steady,” which has not been the case in some Ontario regions, such as Waterloo, which is seeing its hospitals “largely filled up now, so they are very concerned about that situation.”
Hirji said a plurality of new Niagara cases continues to be from the 20 to 39 age group.
“That seems to really be where a lot of the infection is concentrated,” he said.
“We are seeing, though, more infection in all of the other age groups as well — they’ve all gone upwards, it’s just the 20 to 39 age group has gone up the most.”
Hirji said outbreaks were declared over in a child-care centre and in another congregate setting.
“We’ve subtracted two, but, unfortunately, we’ve also declared one new community outbreak linked to a large gathering,” he said.
Meanwhile, Ontario reported 2,829 new COVID-19 cases this weekend — 1,581 Saturday and 1,248 Sunday.
The province reported 49 new deaths — 20 Saturday and 29 Sunday, the highest single-day death toll since June.
The province said it has conducted 44,837 tests since the last daily report. In total, 479 people are hospitalized in Ontario due to COVID-19, including 118 in intensive care.
The province said 67 people
are on ventilators in hospital.
The latest figures bring the province’s total COVID-19 cases to 94,009, with 3,361 deaths, and 78,303 cases resolved.
— With files from Toronto Star and The Canadian Press
Ray Spiteri is a St. Catharines-based reporter for the Niagara Falls Review. Reach him via email: raymond. spiteri@niagaradailies.com