COVID cases down in Durham once again but retirement outbreaks – and a second death from Saturday in Ajax – still concerning

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Published January 19, 2022 at 4:04 pm

Another day of relatively low numbers of new COVID-19 cases in Durham Region paired with climbing numbers for those affected in retirement homes made for another mixed bag of COVID news in Durham today.

While it’s understood that new case numbers are significantly underrepresented, those are the numbers we have to work with and new case totals in Durham were in the 200s for the second day in a row.

Tuesday’s total of 290 was up 13 from Monday but a far cry from new case totals of 900-plus late last week.

One more death of an Ajax resident was added to the total, a second late-reporting death from Saturday, bringing the number of people who have died from the virus since the pandemic was declared to 398.

Oshawa continues to lead the new case count, reporting 95 new cases Tuesday. Whitby, with 52, was the only other community with more than 50 new cases. Scugog reported just two.

There are 36 active cases in retirement and long-term care homes in Durham – down seven from yesterday – but the number of people isolating from the virus spiked dramatically to 174. Hillsdale Estates continues to have the biggest outbreak with 32 isolating (and 27 now recovered), with Glen Hill Strathaven now at 25. Lakeridge Health has 21 patients and staff still isolating from five different outbreaks, with the largest outbreak affecting a dozen people.

Other major outbreaks are at Bay Ridges (16), Hillsdale Terraces (11), Fairview Lodge (11), Livita Parkway Retirement Residence (8), Lakeridge Health Whitby (7), Ontario Shores (5) and Thornton View (5).

There are two workplace outbreaks: one in agriculture and one in manufacturing.

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