The latest COVID update from the Simcoe Muskoka District Health Unit, published April 22, includes two deaths and six new hospitalizations.
Two Simcoe County residents – a man between 65 and 79 years old and a woman over 79 years old – died on April 16 after contracting COVID-19. Both cases were outbreak-related.
Testing has captured 465 new COVID cases in the region since the last update on April 20. Because testing is not available to everyone, case counts are underestimated.
The case data included in the latest update may be incomplete as there are some issues with the provincial lab reporting feed.
The health unit reported 54 deaths in February, 25 in March, and 20 so far in April.
There are 20 people from the region currently hospitalized because of COVID-19. This number does not include people who were hospitalized for other reasons and also test positive for COVID-19.
Since the start of the pandemic, the local health unit has confirmed 42,399 cases of COVID-19 with 40,249 of those cases recovered and 464 cases ending in death.
Of the deaths reported by the health unit since March 2020, 403 were COVID-related, 51 deaths were not related to COVID-19 but the person tested positive, and for 10 of them, the cause of death is unknown or pending.
To date, 83 per cent of the population aged five years old and up are fully vaccinated with two or more doses, and 18 per cent of the region's total population (including children) is unvaccinated.
There are 44 active outbreaks in Simcoe-Muskoka, down from 47 outbreaks on April 15. The current active outbreaks include 18 in institutional settings (hospitals, long-term care, retirement homes), 18 in congregate settings (group homes, shelters), and eight at childcare centres.
A list of outbreaks is available on the health unit website here.
According to monitoring of the region's hospitals by the health unit, about 67 per cent of the region's ICU beds are full and about 45 per cent of the ventilator beds are occupied. Acute care occupancy is highest with 88 per cent of the beds in the region currently full.
