In the first update of the week, the Simcoe Muskoka District Health Unit has reported a slight decrease week-over-week in COVID deaths, hospitalizations and cases.
Last week the health unit reported 580 new cases, seven new hospitalizations and three new deaths, which is a decrease from the week of March 6, which brought 435 new cases, 11 new hospitalizations and seven deaths.
The latest update from the health unit, published March 21, includes zero new deaths and four new hospitalizations.
The health unit has reported 52 deaths in February, and 14 so far in March.
There are 21 people from the region currently hospitalized because of COVID-19.
Testing has captured 227 new COVID cases in the region since the last update on Friday, March 18. Because testing is not available to everyone, case counts are underestimated.
Since the start of the pandemic, the local health unit has confirmed 37,246 cases of COVID-19 with 35,933 of those cases recovered and 431 cases ending in death.
Of the 431 deaths reported by the health unit since March 2020, 376 deaths were COVID-related, 40 deaths were not related to COVID-19 but the person tested positive, and for 15 of them, the cause of death is unknown or pending.
Based on data collected since July in Simcoe-Muskoka, the rate of hospitalization from COVID-19 is four times higher for unvaccinated people than for vaccinated. The rate of admission to an intensive care unit is eight times higher for unvaccinated people, and the rate of death is three times higher for an unvaccinated person versus someone with two or more doses of a vaccine.
There are 18 active outbreaks in Simcoe-Muskoka, up from 16 outbreaks on March 14. The current active outbreaks include eight in institutional settings (hospitals, long-term care, retirement homes), seven in congregate settings (group homes, shelters), and three at child-care centres.
The health unit is no longer reporting case counts associated with individual outbreaks. A list of outbreaks is available on the health unit website here.
According to monitoring of the region's hospitals by the health unit, about 61 per cent of the region's ICU beds are full and about 26 per cent of the ventilator beds are occupied. Acute care occupancy is highest with 88 per cent of the beds in the region currently full.
According to Collingwood General and Marine Hospital reporting as of March 21, there are two COVID-positive inpatients at the hospital. This can include people admitted because of COVID and those hospitalized for other reasons who also test positive for COVID in addition to anyone receiving care at the hospital who contracted COVID through the outbreak.
