COVID-19 cases still high in Durham; one new death reported

COVID-19 numbers are still alarmingly high in Durham Region, with one new death reported and the weekly incident rate of 62.7 more than triple what it was a month ago.

There were a total of 460 new cases reported for the week of July 17-23, with a 13.3 per cent positivity rate. Thirty-seven people are in hospital with the virus with one person in intensive care.

Wastewater treatment testing stats are also not promising. Of 29 samples taken in the past two weeks all 29 contained detections of the virus and the signal strength at all seven sampling sites is rated high but stable.

There are ten outbreaks at retirement homes, long-term care homes and hospitals.