The North Bay Parry Sound District Health Unit has confirmed its first case of a COVID-19 Variant of Concern (VOC). It's also believed to be the first in northern Ontario.
Following a positive result of COVID-19, with exposure associated with recent international travel, further testing for variants was requested. The individual is currently self-isolating.
Preliminary results of the testing showed the presence of a VOC, however, further testing is required to identify the strain of this variant.
“The preliminary results of COVID-19 Variant of Concern confirms the need for everyone to remain cautious and assume everyone outside your home has COVID-19,” says Dr. Jim Chirico, Medical Officer of Health. “Our district has been doing great with keeping the number of individuals who have tested positive for COVID-19 low, but, as we've seen with the outbreaks in long-term care homes, associated to COVID-19 Variants of Concern in southern Ontario, the variants can be devastating. We must not let our guard down and we need to continue to follow public health guidelines.”
Chirico did not specify if the VOC is in Nipissing or Parry Sound.
The province of Ontario is currently facing a surge of variant cases, particularly the COVID-19 variant first detected in the UK says a Health Unit news release.
"This variant has proven to be easily transmissible, and we have seen this with long-term care homes in districts as close as the Simcoe Muskoka District Health Unit."
Meanwhile, one new case of COVID was announced today, bringing to seven the number of active cases. There are six in Nipissing and one in Parry Sound. It brings the total case count to 196.
In northern Ontario, the breakdown of Public Health Ontario data is:
- North Bay Parry Sound District Health Unit: 192 cases, rate of 148 per 100,000 people. The health unit has reported 196 cases. There are seven known active cases.
- Timiskaming Health Unit: 91 cases, rate of 278.4 per 100,000 people. The health unit has reported 91 cases. There is one known active case.
- Algoma Public Health: 174 cases, rate of 152.1 per 100,000 people. The health unit has reported 175 cases. There are 27 known active cases.
- Porcupine Health Unit: 285 cases, rate of 341.6 per 100,000 people. There are 65 known active cases.
- Public Health Sudbury and Districts: 528 cases, rate of 265.3 per 100,000 people. The health unit has reported 522 cases. There are 64 known active cases.
- Northwestern Health Unit: 266 cases, rate of 30.4 per 100,000 people. There are 15 known active cases.
- Thunder Bay District Health Unit: 1,012 cases, rate of 674.8 per 100,000 people. The health unit has reported 1,017 cases. There are 134 known active cases.
Public Health Ontario has reported 1,563 new cases of COVID-19 today.
Today's report includes 88 new deaths, 36 of whom were residents at long-term care homes.
The deaths reported today include one person between 20 and 39 years old, two people between 40 and 59 years old, and 32 people between the ages of 60 and 79 years old, and 53 people over the age of 80.
The province has reported 114 new hospitalizations since yesterday, and 12 new admissions of COVID-19 patients to intensive care units.
The Feb. 4 update provided by the province's public health agency also reported the following data:
- 1,956 new recoveries
- 16,330 active cases, which is down from 16,811 yesterday
- 1,101 people are currently hospitalized with COVID-19 in Ontario, up from 1,066 reported yesterday.
- There are 323 COVID patients in intensive care units (down from 336 yesterday) and 241 COVID patients on ventilators (down from 254 yesterday).
- The province reported 64,467 tests were processed yesterday resulting in a 2.6 per cent positivity rate.
- Another 47,282 tests are still under investigation and/or being processed. To date, 9.84 million tests have been completed.
- Of the 1,563 new cases reported today, 584 are from Toronto*, 265 cases are from Peel, 132 are from York Region, and 55 are from Simcoe-Muskoka
- There are 226 active outbreaks at long-term care homes, 129 at retirement homes and 75 at hospitals.
- Of the cases reported today there are 198 people under 19 years old, 534 people between 20 and 39 years old, 478 people between 40 and 59 years old, 241 people between 60 and 79 years old, and 108 cases people over the age of 80.
*Due to a migration of data to a new system by Toronto Public Health, the province has indicated there could be continued fluctuations in daily case counts due to corrections and updates.
Variant of concern
- The province has reported 152 lab-confirmed cases of the UK variant strain of COVID-19 (B.1.1.7).
- The province has reported one case of B.1.351 (also known as the South African variant.
- According to Public Health Ontario, there are delays between specimen collection and the testing required to confirm a variant of concern. As such, the reports can change and can differ from past case counts publicly reported.
Vaccine update for Feb. 4:
- There were 6,724 doses of vaccines against COVID-19 administered on Feb 3, up from 3,716 on Feb. 2.
- As of 8 p.m. on Feb. 3, the province reports 355,055 doses of vaccine against COVID-19 have been administered.
- In total, 80,977 people have been fully vaccinated, having received two doses of vaccine, which are to be given a few weeks apart.
Public Health Ontario has confirmed 273,660 cases of COVID-19 since the start of the pandemic, and reported 250,937 recoveries and 6,393 deaths, of which 3,683 were individuals living in long-term care homes.
The cumulative average incidence rate in the province is 1,841 cases per 100,000 people in Ontario.
The weekly incidence rate in Ontario is 83.5 cases per 100,000 people from Jan. 25 to Jan. 31, which is a decrease of 19.1 per cent compared to Jan. 19 to Jan. 25 when the average weekly incidence rate was 103.2 cases per 100,000 people.
Yesterday, the Simcoe Muskoka District Health Unit reported 45 new cases of COVID-19 in the region.
