THUNDER BAY – The number of active cases in the Thunder Bay District has dropped for the first time in over two weeks, as public health authorities reported 26 new cases, and 40 previous cases now resolved on Saturday.
That saw the number of active cases in the district fall by 14 from the day before, to 335. It's the first time active cases have declined since Feb. 10, though it remained the second-highest active case total yet reported.
The Thunder Bay District Health Unit reported a single-day record of 60 new confirmed cases on Friday.
The recent surge of cases and hospitalizations prompted the province to move the health unit back into Grey-Lockdown in its COVID-19 response framework as of Monday.
Of the 26 cases reported Saturday, 23 involved individuals in the Thunder Bay area, while 3 were in First Nations.
Nineteen of the cases were considered a result of close contact with a previously identified case, one was related to an outbreak at the Musselwhite mine, four had no known exposure, and an exposure category for two others was still pending.
There was one new active case in hospital, marking a total of 23 district residents hospitalized with the virus. Seven of those are in the Intensive Care Unit.
There were no new deaths reported. The health unit had reported one new death attributed to COVID-19 in each of the previous three days.
No cases of the three variants of concern being monitored by provincial health authorities had yet been detected in the health unit as of Friday.
A total of 1,583 cases have now been reported in the district. 1,218 of those are considered resolved, 335 are active, and 30 deaths are now attributed to the virus.
The district's incidence rate stood at 160 cases per 100,000 people for the five-day period Feb. 17 to 23.
Meanwhile, Ontario reported 1,185 new cases Saturday, and 16 new deaths.
