THUNDER BAY – The Thunder Bay District Health Unit reported 21 new cases of COVID-19 Sunday, with the number of active cases confirmed in the district falling for the eleventh straight day.
Of the cases reported Sunday, two were attributed to household contact, seven to other close contact, ten had no known exposure, and an exposure category for two others was pending.
Thirteen of the cases were in Thunder Bay and surrounding areas, seven were in district First Nations, and one was in a district community.
With 38 previous cases declared resolved, the active case count fell to 216, its lowest level since Feb. 20. Active cases peaked at 470 on March 7.
COVID-19 hospitalizations declined by one, with 19 district residents in hospital with the virus. Four of those people were in the intensive Care Unit.
The trend of declining COVID-19 hospitalizations has been tentatively welcomed by the Thunder Bay Regional Health Sciences Centre, where there were over 50 infected patients admitted at times in recent weeks. The hospital could resume elective surgeries this week.
No new deaths were recorded Sunday, at the end of a week that saw eight new deaths attributed to the virus. The health unit reported the district's 47th death in which the virus was determined to be either a contributing or underlying cause on Saturday.
The health unit had a testing positivity rate of 7.6 per cent for the most recent period it reported, March 14 to 20.
It reported a total of 3,576 tests conducted in that period, though the agency noted testing data for three days of that week was still incomplete.
The incidence rate for the Thunder Bay District stood at roughly 110.7 cases per 100,000 people over the past week.
The TBDHU has reported a total of 2,789 confirmed cases since the pandemic began. Of those, 2,526 were considered resolved and 216 active, with 47 deaths.
