COVID-19 rates continue to rise in KFL&A, 32 new cases, 267 active

COVID-19 cases continue to skyrocket in the KFL&A region, with 32 new cases announced Friday.

These new cases have resulted in another record-high active case count, with 267 people currently infected in the region.

The health unit is also reporting nearly 88 new cases per 100,000 per week, a rate never before seen in the community.

Hospitalizations are also at all-time highs, with 18 people in hospital, nine people in intensive care units and seven people on ventilators.

A quick trip to the local COVID-19 dashboard will show some changes in the way the health unit is monitoring the virus in the region.

The health unit has added the colour-coded system previously used by the province to the dashboard. Currently, KFL&A stands in the red zone.

The dashboard also hosts a new graph, that shows case rates among the vaccinated and the unvaccinated. As things stand on Friday, cases are 6.2 times higher among the unvaccinated than the vaccinated.

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Vaccination rates have also changed, since the health unit began vaccinating children five and up. Now, 82 per cent of the eligible population have received both doses of their vaccines.

Some may have noticed that the vaccination rates for those 12 and up have changed as well.

Dr. Piotr Oglaza, medical officer of health for the region, says this is due to an update in population size from new 2020 Statistics Canada census data, which recorded a two per cent decrease from the data previously used.

This leaves 88.9 per cent of the 12-and-up population fully immunized.