Thunder Bay District Health Unit reports 1st COVID-19 death in nearly 5 months
CBC
The Thunder Bay District Health Unit reported a COVID-19 death on Thursday, the first since the middle of June.
The death is the 65th recorded in the Thunder Bay district since the start of the pandemic.
The health unit also announced one new positive case on Thursday, with the active case count sitting at 21.
There have been 35 cases announced during the first 11 days of November, which is more than had been announced during each of September and October.
Dr. Janet DeMille, the Thunder Bay district medical officer of health, said she is concerned about the rise in cases.
"We did very well over the summer and obviously for September and October as well, so it is uncomfortable when we start to see our cases maybe go up. It's not only here but we see some other places, including other places in northern Ontario where it's going up," she said.
"This is what happened to us last year. We did well up until the end of October and then started to see an increase in cases."
The health unit area has a strong vaccination rate, DeMille said, but added that areas with a lower uptake remain a concern.
Since the start of June, only about 15 per cent of local COVID-19 cases were in fully vaccinated individuals.
"I think in general we can follow where people got [COVID-19] from," DeMille said. "We don't have, for example here in Thunder Bay, evidence of broader community spread.
"Some of our cases have arrived here through travel, so people coming from other areas or travelled through other areas in Canada, notably where there's a higher rate."
Earlier this week, Public Health Sudbury and Districts implemented new COVID-19 measures as positive test numbers grew to give the region the highest rate of active cases among the province's 34 health units.
Those restrictions included reinstating capacity limits and requiring participants of indoor sports over the age of 12 to be fully vaccinated.
DeMille, who compared those measures to when Thunder Bay schools were closed during the local COVID-19 spike in March, said the case numbers aren't at the stage where she would look at doing the same.
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