Health unit reports 25 new COVID-19 cases

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The Brant County Health Unit on Thursday reported 25 new COVID-19 cases over the past 24 hours.

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There have now been 54 cases this week.

Active cases increased to 100 on Thursday from 85 on Wednesday and 74 on Tuesday.

Since the pandemic began in March last year, 4,501 people have tested positive for COVID-19 in Brantford and Brant County, with 4,371 of those resulting in recovered cases.

The Brant Community Healthcare System says there are five COVID patients in hospital receiving care, with two in critical care. The BCHU reports there are six patients in care with the difference due to the timing of reporting.

There have been 30 local deaths attributed to COVID-19.

The BCHU is reporting COVID-19 cases by vaccination status each Monday and of all cases since June 14, 69.78 per cent (755) have been among unvaccinated people, 7.49 per cent of cases (81) have been people with one vaccine dose and 22.74 per cent of cases (246) have been people who are fully vaccinated.

The health unit is reporting 1,918 variants of concern. Of those, 792 have the Alpha lineage, 464 have the Delta lineage, 89 have the Gamma lineage and 575 have some mutation detected. Although the Omicron variant is now listed with the other previous variants, there have been no cases reported as of yet by the health unit.

There have been 255,547 total doses of the vaccine administered by the BCHU. That number includes 119,348 first doses, 118,386 second doses and 17,813 third doses.

As of Dec. 12, 86 per cent of residents, aged 12 and older, have received one dose of the vaccine, while 83 per cent have received two or more doses.

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As of Monday, those aged 18 and older are eligible for a booster shot, three months after their second doses.

The following are a list of walk-in clinics where vaccines are being administered:

Visit www.bchu.org/covid19vaccine/ for more information about the local vaccine rollout and covid-19.ontario.ca/ for more information on the rollout in Ontario.

An outbreak at Central Baptist Academy from Nov. 30 that involved two children / students was declared over on Wednesday.

The following is a list of ongoing outbreaks:

The following are local schools with reported cases since Dec. 10:

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The Ohsweken Public Health website was experiencing technical difficulties on Wednesday but its most recent statistics indicated there are 38 active cases on Six Nations of the Grand River with 151 people in self-isolation.

There are three people from Six Nations currently hospitalized.

Since the start of the pandemic, there have been 862 confirmed cases, of which 807 are resolved.

Exact numbers were not available but 54 per cent of the population has received a dose of the vaccination, with 47 per cent competing their vaccination series.

There have been 15 deaths related to the virus on Six Nations.

On Thursday, Public Health Ontario reported 2,421 new COVID-19 cases over the past 24 hours. That is almost double the 1,290 cases from a week ago and it is the highest number of single-day cases since May 15 when there were 2,584.

Of the new cases, 1,530 are from individuals who are fully vaccinated and 891 are from individuals who are unvaccinated, partially vaccinated or whose vaccination status is unknown. Approximately 37 per cent of the new cases were found in about 20 per cent of the population that is unvaccinated.

The seven-day rolling average in the province sits at 1,676, up from 1,055 one week ago.

There were nine deaths reported Thursday and the number of people in the province who have died as a result of COVID-19 since the start of the pandemic is 10,102.

Ontario’s Science Advisory Table said on Wednesday that about 53 per cent of all COVID-19 cases in the province are caused by Omicron, which has a doubling time of 2.2, meaning the virus is doubling in the province approximately every three days.

That means that by New Year’s Eve there could be more than 10,000 cases per day in the province.

Omicron’s effective reproduction (Rt) number is at 4.55, meaning that every person who is infected is infecting four more people. The Delta variant has a Rt value of 0.97.