The Simcoe Muskoka District Health Unit is reporting 715 new COVID-19 cases and one death in its latest update published Dec. 31.
A Barrie woman between 65 and 79 years old died Dec. 24 after contracting COVID-19. She was not vaccinated.
Though the health unit is providing updates on local confirmed cases, a notice on its website indicates the case numbers are underestimating COVID transmission in the community. Since the province has also changed access to COVID testing, it has further reduced the number of cases being caught through laboratory testing.
Included in the new cases reported today are 126 unvaccinated, 31 partially vaccinated, and 523 fully vaccinated people.
There are 4,246 active, lab-confirmed cases in the region.
Twenty-seven Simcoe-Muskoka residents currently hospitalized with COVID-19, and eight patients are in an ICU. Two people in the ICU have two doses of vaccination and one has three doses of a vaccine. Fifty-two per cent of the hospitalized cases in. theregion are unvaccinated.
Over the last eight weeks, there have been 89 unvaccinated people, nine partially vaccinated, and 32 fully vaccinated people hospitalized with COVID-19 in Simcoe Muskoka. All have been over 12 years old.
Since the start of the pandemic, the local health unit has confirmed 21,487 cases of COVID-19 with 16,953 of those cases recovered and 288 cases ending in death.
A little over 75 per cent of the entire population of Simcoe-Muskoka has been fully vaccinated. Currently, 84 per cent of the population that is five years of age or older has received at least one dose of a COVID vaccine.
Because of the high number of cases being reported to the health unit, transmission source is now being listed as either sporadic or outbreak-related. There are nine cases linked to outbreaks included in today's report, and the rest are listed as "sporadic" cases.
There will be no update again from the Simcoe Muskoka District Health Unit until Jan. 4.
The new cases reported in Simcoe County today include:
- Collingwood (14)
- Clearview (3)
- Wasaga Beach (13)
- Barrie (256)
- Springwater (43)
- Innisfil (62)
- Bradford (56)
- Orillia (38)
- Oro-Medonte (21)
- Severn (23)
- Ramara (15)
- Midland (12)
- Tiny (12)
- Tay (6)
- Penetanguishene (11)
- Essa (32)
- New Tecumseth (39)
- Adjala-Tosorontio (8)
- One case is listed with location information pending.
New cases reported in Muskoka District include:
- Bracebridge (18)
- Gravenhurst (11)
- Huntsville (19)
- Muskoka Lakes (1)
- Georgian Bay Township (1)
Breakdown by municipality
The health unit does sometimes remove a case or move them based on further investigation of location data. The chart below reflects updated totals for each municipality as reported by the health unit on Dec. 31.
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| Municipality | Total cases** | Recoveries | Deaths | In Hospital | Last case reported | Cumulative incidence rate* | Weekly incidence rate*** | % of 12+ pop. with two doses of vaccine |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Adj-Tosorontio | 339 | 271 | 2 | Dec. 30 | 2,860 | 312 | 76.9% | |
| Barrie | 7,359 | 5,769 | 135 | 11 | Dec. 29 | 4,633 | 374 | 86% |
| Bradford W-G | 2,821 | 2,433 | 41 | Dec. 30 | 6,462 | 312 | 86% | |
| Clearview | 256 | 187 | 5 | Dec. 30 | 1,703 | 233 | 84.7% | |
| Collingwood | 453 | 320 | 4 | Dec. 30 | 1,836 | 182 | 89.9% | |
| Essa | 848 | 668 | 6 | 1 | Dec. 30 | 3,518 | 286 | 75.4% |
| Innisfil | 1,937 | 1,583 | 21 | 2 | Dec. 30 | 4,698 | 349 | 85% |
| Midland | 368 | 287 | 7 | 2 | Dec. 30 | 2,010 | 169 | 87.1% |
| New Tecumseth | 2,117 | 1,792 | 19 | 2 | Dec. 30 | 5,000 | 298 | 80.6% |
| Orillia | 782 | 555 | 10 | 1 | Dec. 30 | 2,313 | 204 | 89.7% |
| Oro-Medonte | 511 | 366 | 6 | 2 | Dec. 30 | 2,191 | 210 | 84.2% |
| Penetanguishene | 329 | 258 | 8 | 1 | Dec. 30 | 3,414 | 239 | 90.4% |
| Ramara | 215 | 170 | 1 | 1 | Dec. 30 | 2,056 | 77 | 86.8% |
| Severn | 266 | 155 | 3 | Dec. 30 | 1,774 | 187 | 85.4% | |
| Springwater | 743 | 491 | 2 | Dec. 30 | 3,466 | 471 | 92% | |
| Tay | 229 | 173 | 3 | Dec. 30 | 2,042 | 134 | 87.7% | |
| Tiny | 279 | 193 | 2 | 2 | Dec. 30 | 2,079 | 238 | 79.9% |
| Wasaga Beach | 503 | 428 | 5 | 1 | Dec. 30 | 2,122 | 152 | 86.8% |
~Fully vaccinated means an individual whose second dose was 14 or more days before the onset of COVID-19 symptoms.
*Cumulative incidence rate is the number of cases per 100,000 people reported to date
**Total cases include the number of cases currently recovering at home as well as any that have recovered, died, or are in hospital
***Weekly COVID-19 incidence rate per 100,000 by municipality for week of Dec. 19. N/A indicates fewer than five cases in a week
