Brant County likely moving to ‘Red-Control’ level of Ontario’s COVID-19 framework, says MOH

Brant County’s acting medical officer of health says she expects the region will be moving to the Red-Control level of Ontario’s COVID-19 framework in the next few days due to rising key epidemiological indicators.

Dr. Elizabeth Urbantke says weekly case counts, weekly incidence and reproductive rates as well as Brant’s percent positivity rate have all risen to levels well above where they have typically sat in the couple of months.

“All of these things together are definitely concerning, especially as we are seeing more contagious variants of concern constitute nearly 50 per cent of cases provincially,” Urbantke said in an update on Wednesday.

The MOH said despite vaccine efforts “intensifying” with  a vaccine rollout, the county is simply not at the “end of the tunnel” in regards to a bump the other way in the province’s colour-coded system.

The Brant County Health Unit reported eight new COVID-19 cases on Wednesday with active cases were down by eight day over day to 89 as of March 17.

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Public health is now managing five active outbreaks in the community: at a nursing home, three schools and one workplace.

The county has had 1,643 coronavirus cases and 12 virus-related deaths since the pandemic began last year.

The region added just one more variant case on Wednesday. The county now has 30 variant cases with none having their lineage classified.

Public health says close to 17,000 doses of COVID-19 vaccines have been administered in Brant County with more than 2,500 people having completed their vaccinations as of March 17.

Urbantke says the “next priority” in the vaccination rollout will be adults in chronic home care, seniors 75 years of age and older, as well as those who work live and work in congregate settings.