Today marks two years since the World Health Organization declared a global pandemic.
And, for the first time in the pandemic, the Simcoe Muskoka District Health Unit will cease daily reporting of new cases, deaths, and hospitalizations, and will instead publish updates three times a week (Monday, Wednesday, and Friday).
In today's report (March 11), the health unit has reported zero new deaths or hospitalizations. There are 21 people from the region currently hospitalized because of COVID-19, with seven patients in intensive care units.
Testing has captured 73 new COVID cases in the region since the last update. Because testing is not available to everyone, case counts are underestimated.
Since the start of the pandemic, the local health unit has confirmed 36,447 cases of COVID-19 with 35,245 of those cases recovered and 422 cases ending in death.
Today the province started changing the way it reports COVID deaths. Any fatal cases where the cause of death was unrelated to COVID-19 have been removed from the province's cumulative list of COVID deaths and put into the resolved/recovered cases list.
The health unit, however, stated today it will continue to include all the people who die with COVID in its cumulative list of fatal cases, but will start reporting more information about the cause of death.
Of the 422 deaths reported by the health unit since March 2020, 374 deaths were COVID-related, 38 deaths were not related to COVID-19 but the person tested positive, and for 10 of them, the cause of death is unknown or pending.
The health unit reported 51 deaths in February 2022, and six deaths so far in March.
There are 18 active outbreaks in Simcoe-Muskoka, up from 14 outbreaks on March 4. The current active outbreaks include six in institutional settings (hospitals, long-term care, retirement homes), four in congregate settings (group homes, shelters), and eight 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.
There is an active outbreak at Collingwood General and Marine Hospital (CGMH) declared last week in the surgical unit after three patients and one employee tested positive.
According to CGMH reporting as of March 11, there are five 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 in addition to anyone receiving care at the hospital who contracted COVID through the outbreak.
Here's a look at the Ontario COVID update for March 11.
Grey-Bruce
On March 10, the Grey Bruce Health Unit reported 26 new COVID cases confirmed through limited testing.
Five people from the region are currently hospitalized because of COVID-19.
On average, over the last seven days, there have been 24 new cases per day.
Since the start of the pandemic, 39 Grey Bruce residents have died in the region and another 13 residents have died while receiving treatment outside the Grey Bruce region.
In Grey and Bruce Counties, about 79 per cent of the eligible population (five and older) has two or more doses of a vaccine. About 17 per cent of those eligible for a vaccine remain unvaccinated.
