THUNDER BAY – The Thunder Bay District Health Unit reported 13 new cases of COVID-19 Saturday, with the district’s active case count falling below 100 for the first time in two months.
Of the new cases, ten involved residents of Thunder Bay and the surrounding areas, two were in district communities, and one was in a district First Nation.
Three were attributed to household contact, two to other close contact, one to travel outside of Northwestern Ontario, and six had no known exposure, while the exposure category for the final case was still pending.
With 16 previous cases declared resolved, the active case count fell to 98 Saturday, its lowest level since Feb. 10.
The number of district residents in hospital with the virus rose by one to 13, with five of those individuals in the Intensive Care Unit as of Saturday.
The health unit's incidence rate stood at approximately 35.35 over the past week, far below the rising provincial rate (Ontario's rate was 143.3 for the most recent period reported by Public Health Ontario, March 31 to April 6).
The testing positivity rate fell to 3.4 per cent for the most recent week reported, March 28 to April 3, on a total of 3,408 tests completed (testing data for the week is still incomplete, the health unit noted).
The health unit has reported a total of 2,962 confirmed COVID-19 cases since the pandemic began, with 98 active, 2,809 resolved, and 55 deaths in which the virus was found to be a contributing or underlying cause.
Four cases of identified COVID-19 variants of concern have so far been confirmed in the health unit.
The health unit also announced Saturday it would no longer report new cases on Sundays, instead combining them in Monday's totals.
