There are 43 more cases of COVID-19 confirmed positive in Ontario today, and it's unknown if any of those are from the Simcoe Muskoka District Health Unit's coverage area.
On the provincial list released this morning, 21 of the cases have no information other than "pending." The province is, however, listing those cases as confirmed positive. There is no information on the age, gender, applicable health unit, how the virus was transmitted or whether the patient is hospitalized or self-isolating.
Until now, most of the provincial cases listed have included all of that information.
An official from the Simcoe Muskoka District Health Unit (SMDHU) said they "know what we know" and could not confirm whether any of the 21 pending cases were from the region.
There are five confirmed cases in the region so far, three out of Royal Victoria Regional Health Centre in Barrie, one in a Bradford resident, and one found at Orillia Soldiers' Memorial Hospital.
As of this morning, the SMDHU website reports five confirmed cases with another 13 "probable cases" in Simcoe County, and four probable cases in Muskoka.
Leslie Gordon, a spokesperson for SMDHU said test results from various hospitals are sent to Public Health Ontario or to a designated lab and the results are reported to the province. The health unit gets notified from the province once details are known, and any contact tracking that needs to be done will then take place.
Gordon said the SMDHU will post local probable and confirmed cases on its website and will remove cases if the test result comes back negative.
