The latest COVID update from the Simcoe Muskoka District Health Unit, published March 30, includes three new hospitalizations and zero deaths.
The health unit has reported 53 deaths in February, and 20 so far in March.
There are 14 people from the region currently hospitalized because of COVID-19.
Testing has captured 307 new COVID cases in the region since the last update on March 30. Because testing is not available to everyone, case counts are underestimated.
There have been 332 cases confirmed by lab testing for the week of March 27 so far.
Between March 20 and 26, five people were hospitalized for COVID-19, and four people died after contracting COVID-19. Testing confirmed 714 COVID cases that week.
Since the start of the pandemic, the local health unit has confirmed 38,307 cases of COVID-19 with 36,764 of those cases recovered and 438 cases ending in death.
Of the deaths reported by the health unit since March 2020, 385 were COVID-related, 42 deaths were not related to COVID-19 but the person tested positive, and for 11 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.
To date, 82 per cent of the population aged five years old and up are fully vaccinated with two or more doses, and 19 per cent of the region's total population (including children) is unvaccinated.
There are 30 active outbreaks in Simcoe-Muskoka, up from 21 outbreaks on March 23. The current active outbreaks include 15 in institutional settings (hospitals, long-term care, retirement homes), 10 in congregate settings (group homes, shelters), and five 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 58 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 87.5 per cent of the beds in the region currently full.
According to Collingwood General and Marine Hospital reporting as of March 30, there are six 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.
