The Simcoe Muskoka District Health Unit confirmed four new cases of the novel coronavirus since Friday, bringing the local total number of cases to 613, including 36 deaths.
The new cases are in Barrie, Innisfil and Huntsville, Ont., involving men ranging between the ages of 35 and 79.
The cases in Barrie and Huntsville are community-acquired, while the Innisfil case is workplace-related.
“In the last week, we had a total of seven cases and that’s actually the smallest number of cases we’ve had since nearer the beginning,” Dr. Charles Gardner, the Simcoe Muskoka District Health Unit’s medical officer of health, said Monday.
“We’ve most definitely come down quite dramatically, and also we have no outbreaks at this time, so we had one workplace outbreak at a food processing plant in Simcoe County, and that came to an end on July 10.”
On Monday, Ontario Premier Doug Ford announced that much of the province will enter Stage 3 of reopening, with the exception of the Greater Toronto Area, Hamilton, Niagara and Windsor-Essex.
Stage 3 will increase gathering limits and allow indoor restaurant dining, bars and gyms to reopen.
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Of the Simcoe Muskoka health unit’s total cases, 556 people have recovered and four people remain in hospital. Of all cases, about 18 per cent have been related to local institutional outbreaks.
There have been COVID-19 outbreaks in nine long-term care facilities, three retirement homes and one group home, as well as at three workplaces across the region.
According to the health unit, most of its coronavirus cases are from the Barrie and South Simcoe areas.
On Monday, Ontario reported 170 new coronavirus cases, bringing the provincial total to 36,839, including 2,722 deaths.
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