Some good news on the lockdown front today as no new cases of COVID are reported on the Health Unit's website.
Thirty cases remain active in the district, with 26 in Nipissing and four in Parry Sound. However, it remains unclear if cases rebranded as negative from Cassellholme that were previously announced as positive have been adjusted in the latest figures and the Health Unit has not elaborated.
Cassellholme CAO Jamie Lowery calls the Health Unit numbers misleading,
See: Majority of Cassellholme outbreak cases have since retested as 'negative'
The total count remains unchanged at 261.
Four people are hospitalized, two in each district, and two have died.
There are 30 preliminary cases of a variant of concern but still only one has been identified, that being the South African variety. The Health Unit has not provided an explanation why, after more than a couple of weeks, no more variants have been identified.
An update to the Lancelot Apartments outbreak shows 41 cases have been identified, 35 of them residents. It was February 8, when the Health Unit declared an outbreak at Lancelot.
Twelve of those cases are still active, two are in hospital and a 75 year old man has died..
The locksown locally continues.
The Timiskaming Health Unit reports no active cases and is in the green zone.
The Sudbury Health Unit reports 21 active cases and is in an orange zone.
The Simcoe-Muskoka Health Unit reports 556 active cases and is in a red zone.
In northern Ontario, the breakdown of Public Health Ontario data is:
- North Bay Parry Sound District Health Unit: 258 cases, rate of 198.8 per 100,000 people. The health unit has reported 261 cases. There are 35 known active cases. There is one confirmed case of the South African (B.1.351) variant of concern.Algoma Public Health: 195 cases, rate of 170.4 per 100,000 people. There are seven known active cases.
- Timiskaming Health Unit: 91 cases, rate of 278.4 per 100,000 people. The health unit has reported 92 cases. There are no known active cases.
- Porcupine Health Unit: 324 cases, rate of 388.3 per 100,000 people. There are 21 known active cases.
- Public Health Sudbury and Districts: 589 cases, rate of 295.9 per 100,000 people. The health unit has reported 583 cases. There are 24 known active cases. There are 3 confirmed variants of concern (VOC) cases, both are the UK (B.1.1.7) strain.
- Northwestern Health Unit: 432 cases, rate of 492.7 per 100,000 people. There are 97 known active cases.
- Thunder Bay District Health Unit: 1,340 cases, rate of 893.6 per 100,000 people. The health unit has reported 1,341 cases. There are 229 known active cases.
Public Health Ontario has reported 1,058 new cases of COVID-19 today (Feb. 22).
Today's report includes 1,083 new recoveries and 11 new deaths, four were residents at long-term care homes.
Of the deaths reported today, three were individuals were between 60 and 79 years old, and eight were over the age of 80.
The province has reported 45 new hospitalizations since yesterday, and six new admissions of COVID-19 patients to intensive care units.
The Feb. 22 update provided by the province's public health agency also reported the following data:
- 10,335 active cases, which is down from 10,437 yesterday
- 646 people are currently hospitalized with COVID-19 in Ontario, down from 660 reported yesterday. Public Health Ontario notes on the weekends more than 10 per cent of hospitals in the province do not report the daily bed census, which could impact the numbers reported in today's update.
- There are 280 COVID patients in intensive care units (up from 277) and 189 COVID patients on ventilators (up from 181 yesterday).
- The province reported 31,163 tests were processed yesterday resulting in a 3.3 per cent positivity rate.
- Another 11,883 tests are still under investigation and/or being processed. To date, 10.7 million tests have been completed.
- Of the 1,058 new cases reported today, 325 are from Toronto, 215 cases are from Peel, 87 are from York Region, and 47 are from Simcoe-Muskoka
- There are 123 active outbreaks at long-term care homes, 70 at retirement homes and 41 at hospitals.
- Of the cases reported today there are 163 people under 19 years old, 417 people between 20 and 39 years old, 318 people between 40 and 59 years old, 137 people between 60 and 79 years old, and 22 people over the age of 80.
Variants of concern
- The province has reported 390 lab-confirmed cases of the UK variant strain of COVID-19 (B.1.1.7).
- The province has reported 9 cases of B.1.351 (also known as the South African variant).
- The province has reported 1 case of P.1, which is the variant strain that originated in Brazil.
- 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. 22:
- There were 12,922 doses of vaccines against COVID-19 administered on Feb 21, which is down from 16,404 administered on Feb. 19.
- As of 8 p.m. on Feb. 21, the province reported 569,455 doses of vaccine against COVID-19 have been administered.
- In total, 240,669 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 294,144 cases of COVID-19 since the start of the pandemic, and reported 276,937 recoveries and 6,872 deaths, of which 3,857 were individuals living in long-term care homes.
The cumulative average incidence rate in the province is 1,978.8 cases per 100,000 people in Ontario.
The weekly incidence rate in Ontario is 48.4 cases per 100,000 people from Feb. 12 to Feb. 18, which is a decrease of 10.9 per cent compared to Feb. 6 to Feb. 12 when the average weekly incidence rate was 54.3 cases per 100,000 people.
