Wellington County continues to see a spike in COVID-19 cases after it reported 30 new cases on Monday, bringing its total case count 198.
The data, which encompasses the entire weekend, shows there are 55 active cases in the county, including two people in hospital.
The health unit reported that 140 cases are resolved and three cases have been fatal.
The spike in cases has popped up over the last week or so. On Nov. 2, Wellington County reported no new cases and only three active cases.
Since then, there have been 74 new cases and one new death.
The spike can partly be attributed to the Old Order Mennonite community in the northern part of the county.
Wellington-Dufferin-Guelph Public Health has ordered all schools and churches in the community to close as COVID-19 outbreaks have been linked to a school and a wedding of over 100 people.
The directive was issued on Nov. 12 by the medical officer of health, Dr. Nicola Mercer.
She said on Friday that a fair number of recent cases in the county are connected to the Old Order Mennonites, but the bigger issue is the cases that they do not know about.
There have been challenges getting the community tested and contact tracing.
Mercer said paramedics held a remote COVID-19 testing centre for the community earlier this month but no one showed up.
“It was rather disappointing,” she said.
Mercer added that those who do test positive for the virus are not providing information that would help with contact tracing, such as names and locations.
“They are a very private community and I am certain there is some fear or concern that giving the government names of people is something they don’t want to do,” Mercer said.
“But we do need names or we can’t follow up with anybody if we don’t know where you’ve been or been in contact with.”
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