RAINY RIVER, Ont. – The Rainy River region continues to account for the bulk of new COVID-19 cases in Northwestern Health Unit territory, as the agency announced six new confirmed cases Friday.
Four of those were in the NWHU’s Rainy River region, which encompasses over a dozen communities including Rainy River, Atikokan, and Fort Frances (a full list is available on the health unit’s website).
The region has reported a recent surge of cases, accounting for 24 of 28 active within the health unit as of Friday, when the health unit last updated its public data.
Another new case involved a resident of the health unit’s Kenora region, where there were two active cases Friday.
The final case involved an individual with a permanent residence outside of the NWHU’s catchment area, but who was “currently located within” it.
“This last case is not counted as part of NWHU’s confirmed case count, as they will be recorded within the region of their home address,” the health unit stated, without disclosing which health unit the case would ultimately be attributed to.
There was an additional case considered probable in the Rainy River region, the health unit added in an announcement made via Facebook Friday afternoon.
The NWHU had reported a total of 236 cases Friday, including 5 considered probable but not yet confirmed. Of those, 207 were resolved, 28 were active, and one individual had died from the virus.
The health unit's positivity rate, representing the percentage of completed tests that return positive, sat just below 1.7 for the most recent week reported, Jan. 4 to 10. That compared to a rate of about 2.6 province-wide over the same period.
The health unit processed 2,675 tests during that week.
