The region's medical officer of health confirmed today there are six people hospitalized at Collingwood General and Marine Hospital (CGMH) with COVID-19.
Dr. Charles Gardner, medical officer of health for the Simcoe Muskoka District Health Unit, reported the hospitalizations Tuesday (Dec. 8) during a weekly update via Facebook live stream.
He said one of the people who were hospitalized at CGMH was in intensive care and has been transported to Mount Sinai Hospital in Toronto.
He said the cases are likely not yet included in the health unit's statistics.
The health unit is struggling to keep up with the latest surge of cases.
Since Sunday, the health unit has reported 215 new cases of COVID-19 in the Simcoe-Muskoka region. However, there's a lag in reporting, according to Gardner.
"We are doing our best with the caseload that we have, but it is having an impact on our speed," said Gardner. "There's some delay in processing of data and getting some data entry."
He noted the health unit has changed its approach to case and contact follow up with a "rapid response unit" tasked with reaching out quickly to positive cases to inform them of the requirement to self-isolate. Later, someone follows up with an investigation to track their close contacts and try to determine any epidemiological links.
That also impacts the health unit's outbreak declaration process.
"It is taking us longer now to be able to follow up and thoroughly investigate them and furthermore declare some of the outbreaks," said Gardner. "We're having to prioritize situations."
He noted a situation involving a vulnerable community such as a long-term care home, or a large outbreak takes precedence.
Loblaws has confirmed six employees at the Collingwood Loblaw store have tested positive for COVID-19 since late November.
Loblaws told CollingwoodToday in an email on Dec. 8 two of those cases have recovered and "more than a dozen other team members" have been told to self-isolate at home.
The health unit has not declared a workplace outbreak at the Collingwood store, but Gardner said it is still under investigation.
"We have worked closely with local public health who has confirmed we have taken appropriate steps to keep everyone safe and have assured us that there is no additional risk to customers," stated an email from Loblaw public relations. "The store has increased sanitization protocols and, on top of that, has done an additional clean overnight since the colleagues were in the store."
The health unit website lists seven unrecovered cases of COVID-19 in Collingwood, but there may be more unreported cases because of the lag identified by Gardner. There are also four unrecovered cases in Clearview Township as well as one person who is hospitalized, and seven unrecovered cases in Wasaga Beach.
