THUNDER BAY – The Thunder Bay District has now recorded more COVID-19 cases in 2021 than in all of 2020, passing the milestone after 13 new cases were reported Sunday.
The Thunder Bay District Health Unit has confirmed 590 cases in just over six weeks in 2021, compared to 585 throughout last year.
Over one third of this year's cases are associated with outbreaks at the Thunder Bay District Jail and Thunder Bay Correctional Centre.
The health unit announced 13 confirmed cases of COVID-19 Sunday, all in Thunder Bay and the surrounding areas.
Ten of the new cases were a result of close contact with a previously identified case, one had no known exposure, and an exposure category for two others was pending.
There were four people in hospital with the virus Sunday, an increase of two. One of those was in the Intensive Care Unit.
The number of active cases rose to 152, its highest level since Jan. 9.
That represented an increase of nine from Saturday, thanks to four newly resolved cases.
The district had reported a total of 1,175 cases as of Sunday, with 996 resolved, 152 active, and 27 deaths attributed to the virus.
As of Friday, none of the three COVID-19 variants of concern tracked by provincial health authorities had been detected in the district.
The only northern health unit to report cases of the variants so far is Public Health Sudbury & Districts, where three cases of the B.1.1.7 variant have been detected.
Ontario reported 981 cases of COVID-19 Sunday, marking the ninth straight day under 1,500 cases.
