Public health reports 14 new COVID-19 cases in region over weekend

WELLINGTON COUNTY – Wellington-Dufferin-Guelph Public Health (WDGPH) is reporting 14 new COVID-19 cases from July 2 to the morning of July 5.

The region’s active case count now sits at 59, returning to a decrease in cases after last week’s increase to 65 cases on June 28 from 55 a week before that, which reversed a nine-week-long downtrend in cases.

Active cases in the region peaked with a record high of 679 on April 18.

The region’s case rate per 100,000 population has dropped dramatically from 96.8 in the first week of May and 16.7 on June 26 to 15.4 as of July 3. However, that rate is up from 11.2 reported on June 20.

As of July 1, 2.1 per cent of COVID-19 tests are returning positive for the virus.

There are seven people hospitalized due to COVID-19 as of July 1, with three in intensive care at either Guelph General Hospital or Headwaters Health Care in Orangeville (Wellington County hospitals do not have ICUs).

Variants

On June 10, the province declared the WDGPH region a COVID-19 “hotspot” due to the presence of the Delta variant.

WDGPH estimates the Delta (India) variant as the most prevalent variant of concern (VOC) in the region, representing an estimated 54.2% of VOCs between June 27 and July 3.

Local trends

Wellington County had nine new cases over the weekend, bringing the total active cases in the county to 21 as of July 5, up from 14 on June 28 and 10 the week before that. The record high of 122 was set on April 19.

Active cases in Guelph have declined to 32 as of July 5, from 39 reported on June 28 and 43 reported on June 14.

Dufferin County’s active case count continues to decrease for another week, with five active cases as of July 5, down from eight on June 28 and 11 the week before that. No new cases were reported over the weekend in Dufferin County.

The COVID-related death toll across the region remains at 125, unchanged from last week. There have been 41 deaths in Wellington County.

Vaccines/outbreaks

Since June 28, another 2,520 residents in the WDGPH region have received at least one vaccine dose, bringing the total as of July 5 to 209,128 residents or 77.5% of the population aged 12 or older.

In Wellington County 71.4% of of eligible residents have received at least one dose as of July 5, lagging behind 73.2% in Dufferin County and 83.5% in Guelph. WDGPH has faced challenges with vaccine rollout in the county and public health staff are actively working on solutions to increase vaccination rates there.

Public health was aiming to have 75% of the overall region’s eligible population at least partially vaccinated “by June” but did not surpass that threshold until June 22.

There has been a significant jump since last week in the number of residents across the region who are fully vaccinated. As of July 5, there are 112,067 eligible residents (41.5%) fully vaccinated, an increase of 28,524, or 34%, from the 83,543 fully vaccinated residents reported on June 28.

An additional 30,290 vaccines doses have been administered since June 28, according to WDGPH data. As of July 5, at least 317,681 doses have been administered in the region.

There are currently no facility or childcare centre outbreaks and two workplace outbreaks in the WDGPH region.