THUNDER BAY – The Thunder Bay District Health Unit announced 32 new COVID-19 cases Saturday, causing active cases to reach their highest levels in nearly two weeks.
With 10 existing cases declared resolved Saturday, the number of active cases in the district rose by 22, hitting 143.
Of the 32 cases announced Saturday, 29 were considered a result of close contact with a previously identified case.
An exposure category was still pending for two others, and unknown for the final case.
Of the new cases, 28 involved individuals in the Thunder Bay area, and 2 each were in unspecified district communities and First Nations.
There were two district individuals in hospital with the virus as of Saturday – a decline of one. One of those was in the Intensive Care Unit.
There were no new deaths attributed to COVID-19.
Case numbers have remained stubbornly high in Thunder Bay for several weeks, driven in large part by major outbreaks at the Thunder Bay District Jail and Thunder Bay Correctional Centre.
Lockdown measures are set to ease only slightly on Tuesday, when the district will be moved into the Red-Control zone in the province's COVID-19 framework.
The district had seen a cumulative total of 1,162 cases as of Saturday. Of those, 992 were resolved, 143 were active, and 27 people had died.
The district's weekly incidence rate, a key provincial metric, stood at 62 per 100,000 for the most recent week of data, Jan. 31 to Feb. 6. The district had a 1.9 per cent testing positivity rate in that time.
