NW Health Unit/CKDR Archives
No new COVID-19 cases to report in the Northwestern Health Unit catchment area today.
In the latest update, Medical Officer of Health Dr. Kit Young Hoon says there are 14 active cases across the region right now, with 12 in the Rainy River District and 2 in the Kenora Region.
“The situation does appear to be improving still, just in general our numbers are decreasing, as well as the number in each area. I think it’s often good to monitor these things for at least two weeks to get a sense of the trend.”
The current test positivity rate sits at 0.41 percent, compared to 0.61 percent last week and 1.68 percent two weeks ago.
Young Hoon talks about how cases were contracted.
“Of the 13 new cases, nine were close contacts of known cases, one was related to an outbreak and one was related to travel. The source of exposure remains unknown for two of these new cases. Through our investigations, we identified 18 people who had high risk close contact with cases.”
While that’s about 6 contacts per case, Young Hoon says that’s average and consistent with provincial contact tracing findings.
Young Hoon adds travel accounts for very few of our region’s most recent cases.
“We’ve had a couple of outbreaks, but there’s no specific work place or work place setting that’s driving an increase in cases. What we are seeing generally, is that spread or transmission of COVID-19 is happening related to informal gatherings between households.”
Outbreaks at Atikokan General Hospital Extended Care and Riverview Manor in Rainy River have been declared over.
There are three people hospitalized with COVID-19 in our region right now, but Young Hoon says there are no newly reported hospitalizations.
The Health Unit adds they will be reviewing data in cooperation with the province and Ministry of Education to make a decision Thursday, about Fort Frances Schools returning to in-person learning.
Since March 2020, there have been 234 confirmed and 4 probable cases of COVID-19 in the health unit’s catchment area.
