Hamilton reports new COVID-19 death, profs say vaccinations tied to easing of gathering rules

With Ontario’s stay-at-home public health measure expiring on Wednesday, a pair of McMaster professors say it will likely be some time before it’s safe to ease COVID-19 gathering limits to allow larger crowds to attend hockey games and movie theatres.

The Ford government is targeting a reopening of the economy sometime around mid-June which will encompass looser rules in terms of capacity limits in businesses and with outdoor activities.

However, associate professor in pathology and molecular medicine at McMaster Dr. Brian Lichty says the speed of COVID-19 vaccine efforts will simply dictate whether much larger gatherings can happen in the fall.

“I would say, its about doing your part … and get vaccinated so that we can get the numbers sorted out and caseloads down so it’s not worrisome to have large groups of people get together and enjoy a hockey game,” Lichty told Global News.

As of June 2, clinics, personal care physicians and pharmacies in Ontario have administered close to 9.3 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines with about 334,000 of those put into the arms of Hamiltonians.

Since the province implemented it’s stay-at-home order in mid-April, cases have plummeted from between 3,500 and 4,000 cases a day down to a seven-day average of under 1,000 as of June 2.

On Wednesday, Ontario reported 708 people hospitalized with COVID-19 (down by 96 from the previous day) and 576 patients in intensive care units (ICU).

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Dr. Zain Chagla, infection control director at St. Joe’s and assistant professor at McMaster University says drops in cases and hospitalizations can be attributed to not only the public health measures but a growing number of vaccinations.

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“Even if people are getting sick, even if people are getting COVID, they’re not ending up as part of hospitalizations,” said Chagla.

However, Chagla says there are some exceptions due to the strength of new variants which have the ability to put those who have not had a shot in an ICU.

“It just leaves us in this very precarious spot because, again, some of those ICU patients aren’t going to be leaving any time soon,” Chagla said. “The public health measures aren’t necessarily going to affect their prognosis. But at the same time, the inputs are slowing down significantly.”

Local hospitals did see a slight uptick in COVID-19 admissions day over day with 71 cases being reported by the two agencies on Wednesday.

Hamilton Health Sciences (HHS) facilities have 46 total COVID patients, with 22 occupying ICU beds.

St. Joe’s reported 25 patients, 19 of them in an ICU.

The ICU occupancy rate at St. Joe’s is now at 111 per cent as of June 1, while HHS facilities are at 104 per cent.

Chagla says he doesn’t see a another “massive health care wave” beyond the current third wave, but says that won’t mean hospitalizations will end in the months ahead.

“When the cases start coming in, especially with these variants, they’re finding unvaccinated people quickly,” Chagla said.

“And so it’s about all of us, if we want to make sure that there isn’t a fourth wave, to get vaccinated both from a personal standpoint but from a population standpoint.”

Hamilton reported 61 new COVID-19 cases on Wednesday and the city’s 389th virus-related death.

Public health says the deceased was a person in their 70s.

The city closed six more reported outbreaks on Tuesday dropping the number of current active surges down to just 17 involving 88 total cases as of June 1.

Two outbreaks at a pair Hamilton Health Sciences (HHS) hospital outbreaks were declared over after a month.

The largest of the two was at the Juravinski hospital’s unit F4 which accounted for 22 total cases with six deaths over 33 days. The outbreak at St. Peter’s had 11 cases and three deaths since the surge began on April 30.

Outbreaks at two workplaces – the UPS Customer Centre in East Hamilton and Smith Brothers Contracting – were also closed on Tuesday. There were a combined seven cases among the two.

A paid of child cares surges were also deemed over at Church of St. Peter’s Children’s Day Care Centre and Northview Seniors Residence. The outbreaks involved six and two cases respectively.

Active cases dropped again day-over-day to 494 on Wednesday, from 505 on Tuesday.

The city’s reproductive number — the average number of people an infected person is passing COVID-19 on to — remains at 0.68.

The percentage of Hamilton tests returning from Ontario labs as positive for COVID-19 dropped on Wednesday from 8.3 per cent to 6.1.

The number is still higher than the province’s last reported number, 2.8 per cent, on June 2.