THUNDER BAY -- After a one-day rise in the active COVID-19 case count, it dropped again on Thursday.
The Thunder Bay District Health Unit added another 23 cases to its total, but said 29 cases are now considered resolved, lowering the active number of cases in the region to 210 and the seven-day, per-100,000 case count to 109.38, the lowest it's been since Feb. 20.
Of the new cases, seven are considered to be the result of household contact and seven more are deemed to be other forms of close contact. Five are of unknown origin and three exposure categories remain in the pending column. There was also a case associated with travel outside of Northwestern Ontario, the first such case since March 6.
There were no new deaths.
Since the pandemic began last year, there have been 2,883 cases in the District of Thunder Bay. Of those, 2,621 are considered to be resolved. There have been 52 deaths, 22 of them in March, when there were a record 1,248 in March, just shy of doubling February's then-record 641 total.
Seventeen of the new cases are considered to reside in Thunder Bay and surrounding communities, while five of the cases are in district communities and one was on a First Nation. Since March 10 there have been 64 cases in district communities. There have been 155 since the pandemic began.
There were no change in the number of cases identified with variants of concern.
Earlier this week the health unit issued a statement saying it will not report case numbers on Good Friday or Easter Sunday, adding those totals will be rolled into the count the following day.
