One death, 24 new Niagara cases of virus
Niagara Region Public Health says its COVID-19 caseload rose by 24, while Niagara Health reported one additional death over the weekend.
Public health reported 451 confirmed cases of the virus as of Sunday. That’s up from 427 Friday.
Of the 451 cases, 246 remain active, while 168 people have recovered.
Public health is reporting 37 deaths. Public health only updates its death count Monday, Wednesday and Friday.
Public health noted the deaths represent people who have died while infected with the virus, however, it does not mean that COVID-19 was the cause of death.
As of Sunday, Niagara Health reported the death of 30 patients who tested positive for COVID-19, however, it does not mean COVID-19 was the cause of death. That’s up one from the total the hospital system reported Friday.
In its daily online update Sunday, Niagara Health said a patient who was in its care for treatment of COVID-19 died over the weekend. The patient was a Niagara resident.
Niagara Health reports people — Niagara residents or not — who have died within its hospital system, while public health reports all Niagara residents who have died, regardless of where they died, said Dr. Mustafa Hirji, Niagara’s acting medical officer of health.
Of the 24 new cases confirmed by public health, Hirji said 15 are contacts with known cases, the majority being within five longterm care/retirement homes and two hospital wards with declared outbreaks.
The other nine are people who have been infected by community transmission.
Outbreaks have been declared at Henley House in St. Catharines, Royal Rose Place and Seasons Retirement Community in Welland, Woodlands of Sunset in Pelham and Lundy Manor in Niagara Falls, as well as in two St. Catharines hospital wards.
Long-term care or retirement home residents make up 86.5 per cent of the 37 deaths.
“The physical distancing everybody is doing, hand hygiene, staying home as much as possible, that’s really stopping that community transmission,” said Hirji.
“We still are seeing cases in the facilities that are in outbreak. It’s really only a subset of them where we are seeing more cases and in most of those locations, the outbreaks have been well controlled and there’s really not many more cases, but in those few places where the outbreaks are ongoing, unfortunately, we are seeing a substantial number of cases.”
Hirji said more testing is also taking place, as people with mild symptoms are being encouraged to get tested.
“I think you’re seeing a reflection that there’s still infection out there — there’s still some spread — but overwhelmingly that spread is, again, in those outbreak (places).”
He said the 24 new cases over the weekend — 14 on Saturday and 10 on Sunday — “pretty much” follows the pattern public-health officials have seen during the past few weeks.
“We’re not seeing very much community transmission. We’re seeing no travel-related illness — it’s (mostly) people linked to previously-known cases and overwhelmingly those have been linked to outbreaks. It’s a continuation of that trend. I would like to get to the point where we get the outbreaks out of that total, so it’s just a few people linked to previously-known cases and a few community transmissions, and we can then, hopefully, get those elements stopped as well.”