For the second day in a row, Hamilton public health reported another COVID-19 death tied to the pandemic and declared a large outbreak at a city nightclub over.
Health officials learned of the 406th death on Saturday, and say it was a person in their 80s who had contracted the virus. The city said the 405th death was also someone in their 80s after first reporting it was an individual in their 70s on Monday.
As of Aug. 31, active cases dropped day over day from 569 to 533 with 44 new cases revealed in the last 24 hours. Over 75 per cent of those are among people under 50 and about 45 per cent in those 29 and under.
Of 525 new cases recorded in Ontario, data shows 326 were unvaccinated people, 43 were partially vaccinated people, 91 were fully vaccinated people and for 65 people the vaccination status was unknown.
Hamilton’s hospitals have a total of 49 COVID patients as of Tuesday which is five less than on Monday. There are still 16 people requiring acute care in intensive care units (ICU).
Ontario reported 336 people in general hospital wards with COVID-19 as of Aug. 31 (up by 110 from the previous day) with 160 patients in intensive care units (down by two) and 131 patients in ICUs on a ventilator (down by three).
After 14 days, the large outbreak at Sizzle night club on Hess Street South was declared over on Monday. Public health said the club had 51 cases in all tied to patrons who attended the club on three dates in August.
“Public health services declared the outbreak over after 14 days have passed since the last known exposure onsite with no evidence of ongoing COVID-19 transmission that could reasonably be related to exposures at the nightclub,” the city said in a release following the announcement.
The outbreak was declared on August 19 with an initial 9 cases among visitors to the club. Public health believe a number of patrons were not masking nor maintaining physical distancing, which likely contributed to transmission.
Club ownership told Global News, during the outbreak, that the facility followed safety measures including the hiring of additional security to monitor customers. The club remained open despite the outbreak.
The end of the surge drops the total number of cases tied to outbreaks in the city down from 110 to 64 connected amid 14 ongoing outbreaks.
A pair of new outbreaks were declared on Monday at Anytime Fitness on Mud Street West (2 cases) and Today’s Family Greendale childcare centre on the Mountain (3 cases).
Workplace outbreaks account for the largest proportion of the 64 cases with 23 at five locations.
Health officials keeping an eye on new C.1.2 COVID-19 variant
South African researchers are keeping tabs on the spread of a new COVID-19 variant allegedly riddled with mutations potentially associated with increased transmissibility and a resistance to antibodies against the disease.
In a recent study published by researchers at the Network for Genomics Surveillance in South Africa, the C.1.2 variant was first detected in May and has spread to a majority of South Africa’s provinces as well as seven other countries, including China, Portugal and the U.K.
The study is yet to be peer reviewed.
Dr. Brian Lichty with McMaster University’s biology department says genomic sequencing data from South Africa is suggesting the spread of C.1.2 nowhere near that of the Delta variant as of July.
Only about 100 cases have been reported worldwide with most in South Africa, and the strain has yet to be considered a variant of concern (VOC) with the World Health Organization.
“I think given the period of time over which they found 100 cases, and they’ve only found 100, a lot of experts are sort of saying it’s an interesting variant, if you study viruses, but it may not have the legs that Delta does,” said Lichty.
Dr. Timothy Sly, epidemiologist and professor emeritus with Ryerson University, says there’s no evidence that vaccines are inhibited by C.1.2 thus it appears not likely that it would have a significant impact on overall case numbers worldwide.
“Fortunately, they haven’t had two problems, one that they are more pathologically dangerous and the other is that they evade the vaccines,” Sly said of 20 coronavirus variants he’s aware of.
“We’ve seen a little of that around the fringe, but basically they’ve just been spreading more rapidly.”
Sly went on to say that the emergence of a VOC that “ticks off” those boxes is still very possible, however believes the two mRNA vaccines are likely to remain effective with adjustments to the formula.
“It’s easy to do because they don’t have to start all of the phase testing again because essential things done,” said Sly.
“Just tweaking a bit of the RNA that goes in there.”
Over 72.3 per cent of eligible Hamiltonians over the age of 12 have been fully vaccinated as of data released on Aug. 30. That puts Hamilton ahead of only five of 34 health units which have lower numbers of fully vaccinated residents.
As of Monday, the city is still behind the provincial average — 76.1 per cent of the eligible (12 and older) population.
Haldimand-Norfolk is dead last in Ontario with just over 70 per cent of those over 12 with two shots.
More than 9.9 million people in Ontario have been fully immunized as of Tuesday.
With files from By David Lao and Gabby Rodrigues
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