Guelph hits 300 active COVID-19 cases, Wellington County reports 2 more deaths

Guelph reported 47 new cases of COVID-19 on Friday, bringing the city’s total case count to 2,061.

Active cases increased by 33 from the previous day to 300, while another 24 people have recovered, bringing total resolved cases to 1,743.

Five people are in the hospital being treated for the disease caused by the novel coronavirus, which is one more than the previous day.

Guelph’s death toll of 18 remains unchanged, with the last death attributed to COVID-19 in Guelph reported on Jan. 12.

Since Jan. 1, Guelph has reported 728 new cases and five deaths, while 611 people have recovered.

Wellington County

Wellington County reported two more deaths related to COVID-19 on Friday, bringing its death toll to 14.

There have now been seven deaths reported this week in the county.

While details surrounding the death were not provided, Caressant Care’s facility in the Township of Wellington North reported two more deaths on Friday connected to a COVID-19 outbreak that has now claimed eight lives.

Nineteen new cases of COVID-19 were reported in Wellington County on Friday, raising the county’s total case count to 816 during the pandemic.

Active cases increased by six from the previous day to 94. That includes four people in the hospital being treated for the novel coronavirus.

Another 11 people have recovered from the disease, bringing the county’s total resolved case count to 708.

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COVID-19 outbreaks

The deadly COVID-19 outbreak at Caressant Care is one of the worst seen in Wellington County and Guelph during the pandemic.

There are 107 confirmed cases among the facility’s long-term care and retirement home, including eight fatal cases.

The Ontario government announced last week that North Wellington Health Care Corp. would take over management of the facility to help address the spread of COVID-19.

There are 11 active outbreaks among Guelph and Wellington County’s long-term care and retirement homes.

Wellington-Dufferin-Guelph Public Health has also started to report workplace and community outbreaks.

As of Thursday, there are 13 active COVID-19 outbreaks in the region, however, most of them have been categorized as “Workplace – Other.”

COVID-19 vaccines

Wellington-Dufferin-Guelph Public Health has administered 5,415 vaccines since its vaccination program began on Jan. 6.

That’s 702 more than what was reported on Thursday.

So far, public health has received 4,875 doses of the Pfizer vaccine, which is being administered to health-care workers at its facility in Guelph.

Officials announced on Wednesday that it will pause first-dose vaccinations for health-care workers because they do not know when the next shipment from Pfizer will arrive, due to a production delay.

Moderna shipped 3,700 of its doses to Guelph and those are being sent to long-term care and retirement homes for patients and residents.

Public health said it expects all 3,935 residents of long-term care and retirement homes will receive their first vaccine by Jan. 27.