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Coronavirus: Simcoe Muskoka health unit announces new COVID-19 cases

Click to play video: 'Ontario implements temporary closures of non-essential businesses'
Ontario implements temporary closures of non-essential businesses
Premier Doug Ford announced Monday afternoon that all non-essential businesses in the province must temporarily close to help stop the spread of COVID-19. Kamil Karamali has the details. – Mar 24, 2020

The Simcoe Muskoka District Health Unit announced new local cases of the novel coronavirus on Tuesday, including an Adjala-Tosorontio man in his 50s who recently travelled to the U.S. and an Orillia woman in her 70s with community-acquired infection.

Both of the individuals have been hospitalized, according to the local health unit.

“We’ve had a significant number of cases that are severe cases requiring hospitals,” the Simcoe Muskoka District Health Unit’s medical officer of health, Dr. Charles Gardner, told reporters Tuesday.

“This speaks to the importance of people being aware of the hazard of this virus and the need for them to distance themselves from others.

According to Gardner, two more cases were reported to the health unit Tuesday and are being processed, although further information hasn’t been released at this time. If confirmed by the local health unit, there would be a total of 14 local cases.

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According to the health unit, most of its cases have been acquired through travel and are self-isolating.

So far, two people with the novel coronavirus have died in Simcoe County — both are men in their 70s who had close contact with one another, although the source of infection for one of them has been labelled as community-acquired.

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On Monday, Premier Doug Ford ordered all non-essential Ontario businesses to close by 11:59 p.m. on Tuesday, March 24. The order will be in place for at least 14 days.

In Ontario, there have been seven deaths related to COVID-19 in total.

Map of Canadian COVID-19 cases:

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Click to play video: 'Coronavirus outbreak: What are the biggest risk factors for those under 50?'
Coronavirus outbreak: What are the biggest risk factors for those under 50?

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