The Simcoe Muskoka District Health Unit is reporting one death and four new hospitalizations related to COVID-19 in the latest update published today (Feb. 18).
The local health unit has now reported 71 COVID deaths in January and 30 in February.
There are at least 45 people from the region hospitalized because of COVID.
Testing has captured 156 new COVID cases in the region since Thursday, Feb. 17. However, provincial testing is limited to certain high-risk groups, and therefore the results are an underestimation of the true number of positive cases in the community.
Since the start of the pandemic, the local health unit has confirmed 34,432 cases of COVID-19, with 32,457 of those cases recovered and 392 cases ending in death.
According to the local health unit, the vast majority of COVID-19 cases in Simcoe-Muskoka are considered resolved.
Twenty-one of the past 25 deaths have been in seniors 70 years of age and over.
From July 18, 2021 to Feb. 17, 2022, the rate of COVID-19 hospitalizations among the unvaccinated vaccine-eligible Simcoe-Muskoka population is four times higher than it is for those who have received at least two vaccine doses, the rate of COVID-19 intensive care unit (ICU) admissions is nine times higher and the rate of deaths is three times higher.
Since the onset of Omicron (the fifth wave, starting on Dec. 12, 2021), approximately one per cent of reported cases have required hospitalization and 0.1 per cent of reported cases required admission to the ICU.
In total, 1,264,734 doses of COVID vaccine have been administered in Simcoe-Muskoka, including doses administered by local pharmacies.
There have been 496,058 individuals living in Simcoe-Muskoka who have received at least one dose of vaccine, which represents 80 per cent of the total population.
Currently 85 percent of the population five years and older living in Simcoe Muskoka have had at least one dose of vaccine including 81 percent of youth 12 to 17 years of age. In addition, 48 percent of children 5 to 11 years of age have received at least one dose of vaccine.
There are 30 active outbreaks in Simcoe-Muskoka, including 17 in institutional settings (hospitals, long-term care, retirement homes), three in congregate settings (group homes, shelters), and 10 at child-care centres.
The health unit is no longer reporting case counts associated with individual outbreaks.
