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Reported number of COVID cases may not be accurate

January 20, 2022   ·   0 Comments

The number of cases of COVID-19 reported in the Region may not be accurate due changes in the provincial reporting system.

Dr. Charles Gardner, Medical Officer of Health for Simcoe-Muskoka, said data being reported is not as complete as it has been in the past.

“This is due to difficulty that we’ve had keeping up with case and contact management for several weeks now,” Dr. Gardner said, “but also a change in provincial direction about testing itself and a prioritization of who can have PCR testing that ends up being captured within the provincial case-in-contact management system. With those changes we may see a reduction in our case- count that is not actually reflective of the transmission pattern in the community. We need to exercise some caution in the interpretation of the data that we have.”

Dr. Gardner emphasized the fact that the data he presented during a January 12 press conference is reflective of those changes.

As of January 12, the District has had a total of 26,699 confirmed cases of the virus.

It was reported that there is a 15 per cent reduction in cases over the previous week. That is a rate of 501 cases per 100,000 population.

The province also had a 15 per cent reduction in reported cases, however the current problem with data means that number may not be accurate.

The region current is reporting 8,362 cases, with 32 people in hospital including seven in ICU.

Of those cases, 81 per cent of people had been vaccinated with two or three doses.

“This really does speak to the fact that with the Omicron variant there can readily be transmission for people that have had two doses and it can happen even with a third dose. What we do see is continued protection against severity and hospitalization with two doses and more so with three doses. People cannot rely on vaccination alone to prevent transmission. You need to exercise the other protective measures as well.”

Those who are not vaccinated are 11 times more likely to be hospitalized and 22 times more likely to end up in the ICU.

In the most recent cases, the age range of those with have contracted the virus is from young children to senior however, there has been a slight shift to those in the older age range age 40 and over.

The Health Unit is encouraging people to continue wearing masks and practice social distance as the best way to avoid contracting the virus.

By Brian Lockhart
Local Journalism Initiative Reporter

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