The latest COVID update from the Simcoe Muskoka District Health Unit, published April 29, includes zero deaths and 11 new hospitalizations.
Testing has captured 338 new COVID cases in the region since the last update on April 27. Because testing is not available to everyone, case counts are underestimated.
The case data included in the latest update may be incomplete as there are some issues with the provincial lab reporting feed.
Cases have decreased week-over-week with 1,153 new cases reported during the week of April 17-23, which is down from 1,327 cases reported during the week of April 10-16. There have been 584 cases confirmed this week so far.
There are 37 people from the region currently hospitalized because of COVID-19. There are four Simcoe-Muskoka residents in intensive care units because of COVID-19. These totals do not include people who were hospitalized for other reasons and also test positive for COVID-19.
Since the start of the pandemic, the local health unit has confirmed 43,514 cases of COVID-19 with 41,453 of those cases recovered and 468 cases ending in death.
Of the deaths reported by the health unit since March 2020, 411 were COVID-related, 47 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.
Twenty-four people from the region have died in April after contracting COVID-19.
To date, 83 per cent of the population aged five years old and up are fully vaccinated with two or more doses, and 18 per cent of the region's total population (including children) is unvaccinated.
There are 35 active outbreaks in Simcoe-Muskoka, down from 39 outbreaks on April 22. The current active outbreaks include 17 in institutional settings (hospitals, long-term care, retirement homes), 13 in congregate settings (group homes, shelters), and five at child-care centres.
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 74 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 95 per cent of the beds in the region currently full.
