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NWHU reports 24 cases over weekend

Active cases rise, while hospitalizations decline substantially in Northwestern Health Unit.
COVID-19 5
The Northwestern Health Unit reported 24 new cases of COVID-19 over the weekend.

KENORA – The Northwestern Health Unit reported 24 new cases of COVID-19 over the weekend, with active cases continuing to rise while hospitalizations fell dramatically.

There were 91 active cases across the health unit’s vast catchment area as of Sunday. That figure has more than doubled in the past two weeks, after dipping to 44 on March 7.

Broken down by health hub, there were 46 active cases in Kenora, 42 in Sioux Lookout, and 3 in Dryden.

The worsening of indicators including active cases led the province to move the health unit into the Red-Control level in its COVID-19 response framework as of Monday.

The NWHU reported only two district residents hospitalized with the virus as of Friday, down from 12 as recently as March 16.

The agency announced 14 new cases in the Kenora health hub over the weekend, and 10 in the Sioux Lookout hub. Contact tracing was underway, and all close contacts would be notified, it said.

The NWHU had a 1.89 testing positivity rate on 2,908 tests for the most recent week reported, March 8 to 14.

The health unit’s incidence rate stood at 69.6 cases per 100,000 people for the most recent reported period of March 11 to 17, near the provincial average of 67.5 and well below the Thunder Bay District Health Unit rate of 232.7 for the same period.

A total of 5,753 vaccine doses had been administered to NWHU residents as of Sunday. The health unit serves a population of 82,231.

The NWHU has reported a total of 643 confirmed cases since the pandemic began, with 552 considered resolved and four deaths. However, the health unit noted that mortality figure includes “those who had COVID-19 at time of death but died of another cause.”




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