Our region has its first confirmed case of the COVID-19 variant originally found in India.
The medical officer of health for the Simcoe Muskoka District Health Unit, Dr. Charles Gardner, made the announcement yesterday.
Gardner says he received a communication from Public Health Ontario on the weekend indicating there is a local case of the B.1.617 variant that is widespread in India, but received few other details.
Gardner said he has asked for more specifics on the case, but adds variants of concern are now taking over a majority of local cases.
Gardner added that almost all local cases are now screening positive as a variant of concern, with half of them involving patients under the age of 40.
Due to rising COVID-19 cases, Canada has banned flights from India and Pakistan for 30 days.
As of Tuesday, India has reported nearly 198,000 coronavirus deaths.
There are about three dozen confirmed cases of the Indian variant currently circulating in the province.
In its latest update, the Simcoe Muskoka District Health Unit has reported 66 new COVID-19 cases and one more death related to the virus-a Bradford woman in her 80’s.
The health unit says another 85 local cases have tested positive as a variant of concern, with 955 currently active variant cases.
It says to date 2,416 local cases have tested positive for the COVID-19 variant of concern UK B.1.1.7 (UK), 29 cases have tested positive for the P.1 variant of concern (Brazil), 5 cases have tested positive for the B.1.351 variant of concern (South Africa) and an additional 638 cases have screened positive (awaiting confirmatory testing).
You can watch Dr. Gardner’s full announcement below.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=44jyYg8qKiI&t=2877s
Dr. Gardner's #COVID19 media briefing from this afternoon, April 27th, 2021, is now available on our YouTube channel. https://t.co/iXy8Ne9rtP via @YouTube
— SMDHU (@SMDhealthunit) April 27, 2021
As of April 27 2021. #SimcoeMuskoka has 1,331 active #COVID19 cases.
DYK you can find lots more info on our #HealthStats & #HealthMaps ? Such as:
✅Health system capacity (ICU occupancy rate etc.): https://t.co/akd558qG9r
✅COVID-19 Immunizations by age: https://t.co/4JXIUylBq6 pic.twitter.com/iWmU7xBu4m— SMDHU (@SMDhealthunit) April 27, 2021