Risk level remains high after 5 new COVID deaths

Peterborough Public Health reported five new COVID-19-related deaths over the past week on Wednesday, but kept the COVID-19 community risk index level at high, the second highest level on the fivelevel scale, after active confirmed cases dropped over the week.

The jurisdiction has now had 76 COVID-19 deaths since the pandemic began in March 2020 — half of the deaths have happened since early January when the Omicron variant had taken a grip.

The five deaths include a vaccinated man in his 30s (one of the youngest deaths locally of the pandemic), a vaccinated man in his 70s, a vaccinated women in her 70s and two vaccinated women in their 90s.

“The Peterborough region COVID-19 risk index level will remain at the ‘high’ level for the second week in a row. Peterborough Public Health is seeing an increase in case rates,” the health unit reported.

“These cases are mainly related to a large number of outbreaks in high risk facilities that have been reported over the last week. However, we continue to see a downward trend in the wastewater signal, indicating decreasing levels of transmission across the community.

“While we are hopeful that COVID-19 transmission is decreasing across our region, residents are reminded that personal prevention measures … are still strongly recommended.”

A new COVID-19 outbreak on the Riverside 2 unit was reported Wednesday at Fairhaven, a 256-bed municipally run long-term-care home on Dutton Road in the city’s north end, which also has an ongoing outbreak on its Westview 5 unit.

As of Monday, Fairhaven had 22 active resident cases and 11 active staff cases.

The jurisdiction now has 11 active institutional COVID-19 outbreaks, down from 13 a week ago.

Three of the outbreaks are on Units A2, A4 and B5 of the Peterborough Regional Health Centre, which had 17 admitted patients with the virus on Wednesday, down from 18 on Tuesday.

The health unit reported 121 new PCR test confirmed cases over the past week while 156 were resolved, resulting in 273 active confirmed cases, down from 315 a week ago.

COVID-19 vaccination clinics are scheduled at the Healthy Planet Arena at 911 Monaghan Rd. in Peterborough on Friday from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m., May 16 and 18 from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. and May 17, 19, 20, 24, 25 and 26 from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m.

A clinic in the county will be held Thursday from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. at the Cavan Monaghan Community Centre at 986 County Road 10.

Special walk-in clinics are available for pediatric doses for children 5 to 11 at the Healthy Planet Arena on Friday from 3 to 6 p.m., May 17, 20, 24 and 26 from 2 to 4 p.m. and May 18 from 4 to 6 p.m.

The five deaths include a vaccinated man in his 30s, a vaccinated man in his 70s, a vaccinated women in her 70s and two vaccinated women in their 90s