Coronavirus: 170 new cases, 4 additional deaths reported in Simcoe Muskoka

The Simcoe Muskoka District Health Unit has reported 170 new novel coronavirus cases and four additional COVID-19 deaths in the region since Friday, bringing the local case count to 4,756, including 90 deaths.

Eighty of the new cases are in Barrie, while 20 are in Bradford, 17 are in Innisfil and 14 are in New Tecumseth.

The rest of the new cases are in Essa, Orillia, Springwater, Tiny Township, Bracebridge, Clearview, Collingwood, Huntsville, Orillia, Oro-Medonte, Severn, Midland, Muskoka Lakes and Gravenhurst.

Forty-nine of the new cases are a result of close contact with another positive COVID-19 case, while 23 are community-acquired. Forty-seven of the new cases are related to local COVID-19 outbreaks.

The rest of the new cases are all still under investigation.

Of the region’s total 4,756 COVID-19 cases, 71 per cent — or 3,363 — have recovered, while 37 people remain in hospital.

So far, there have been more than 13,000 doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine administered in the region, mainly to health-care workers at hospitals, long-term care and retirement homes. These include more than 425 individuals who have received both doses of the vaccine.

In addition, 89 per cent of long-term residents in Simcoe Muskoka have received the first dose of the COVID-19 vaccine.

Between Jan. 10 and 16, the average daily growth in confirmed cases was 1.4 per cent. Based on projections, if this level of growth continues, there will be about 595 coronavirus cases reported during the week of Feb. 7 to 13.

About half of all new infections in January with a known cause were acquired through close contact with a positive COVID-19 case, while about 25 per cent were acquired in the community with no known source of infection.

So far in January, seniors aged 80-plus have had the highest COVID-19 infection rate, with 80 per cent of these cases associated with an institutional outbreak.

On Monday, Ontario reported 2,578 new COVID-19 cases, bringing the provincial total up to 240,364, including 5,433 deaths.

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