There are 21 people admitted to Health Sciences North with three people in the intensive care unit, daily local data shows for Jan. 4.
Public Health Sudbury and Districts is reporting 558 new COVID-19 cases for the three day New Year's weekend, Saturday, Sunday and Monday. This is believed to be the highest ever three-day case count reported in Sudbury.
It should be noted Public Health Sudbury is re-evaluating how it reports the daily update and what information it contains.
This follows last Thursday's announcement from the province that COVID testing procedures would be changing and that ordinary citizens with no specific history of disease would no longer be eligible for PCR testing. The PCR test, also known as the polymerase chain reaction, or molecular test, is considered the gold standard for COVID-19 testing.
PHSD has said that it is evaluating procedures to determine the best indicator of the severity of illness, but in the meantime it will continue to report local cases. It was not described in any detail how this would take place.
The health unit is also reporting there are now 1,184 active cases that are being monitored locally. This is the first time past the 1,000 case mark. Also, since the PHSD began tracking COVID-19 cases just over 22 months ago, there have been 6,281 total COVID-19 cases confirmed locally. PHSD also said 5,097 of those cases are now resolved. More complete details are included on the daily COVID-19 public health summary.
As for the possible location of the new cases, PHSD said 503 new cases were reported to have occurred in the Greater Sudbury area, 45 new cases in the rural Sudbury district and 10 new cases for the Manitoulin district.
With respect to the possible causes of new and recent cases, PHSD reported 10 new cases linked to outbreaks, 35 new cases associated with close contact of a confirmed case, one case that is travel related, 19 new cases with no known epidemiological link, 90 cases with information missing, and 403 cases that are under investigation.
PHSD also reported general demographics each day about the age groups for people who are becoming infected.
Epidemiological data showed that the majority of local cases are persons in the 20 to 39 age category with 2,232 total cases (An increase of 248 cases).
There were also 1,662cases for the 19 and under age group (An increase of 91).
The next highest number was 1,509 for the 40-59 age group (An increase of 140).
Seniors in the 60 to 79 age group amounted to 696 cases total (An increase of 66).
People aged 80 and over are currently the lowest category with 182 cases (An increase of 13).
There was no change in the Not Specified category, which has zero cases.
Note: The numbers above might not correspond to other numbers being reported because the health unit does not report fresh numbers daily, as they happen. Some of the numbers are delayed.
With respect to COVID-19 testing, PHSD said there have been 356,232 total tests carried out locally since the pandemic began; an increase of 3,918 tests since the last testing report last week.
With respect to vaccination numbers, PHSD is now reporting percentages of people vaccinated rather than doses given. The percentage of area residents who are now fully vaccinated translates to 76.7 per cent of people in the PHSD area.
Public Health is also reporting new outbreaks at the Westmount on William retirement home, and also at Health Sciences North.
More details can be found on the daily COVID summary page. Just scroll to the bottom of the summary page to COVID-19 Outbreaks. It also includes locations where outbreaks have been declared over.
Also, at Sudbury's Health Sciences North, there were 21 patients with confirmed COVID-19 at the hospital, said the hospital website. Three of those patients were in the intensive care unit. In addition to this there were seven admitted patients "being tested" for COVID-19. HSN said none of the seven patients was admitted to the ICU (Intensive Care Unit).
HSN has also reported 10 past-positives for COVID-19 patients who no longer have the disease. One of those patients was in the ICU. The other nine are still being cared for, but not in ICU beds.
On the provincial COVID-19 roster today, the Ontario government daily website reported 11,352 newly confirmed COVID-19 cases across the province. Also today, the province reported 10 new COVID-19 deaths.
