COVID cases still on upward spiral in Durham; new cases up for fourth straight week

COVID-19 cases continue to climb and with the first positive case of a new Omicron variant in Canada identified in B.C. – the BA.2.86 strain – and the fall virus season nearly upon on us, it doesn’t appear the situation is going to improve any time soon.

The only good news from this week’s numbers is the number of deaths, which remained at zero.

New cases are up for the fourth reporting period in a row. New cases stood at just 15 a month ago: they’re now at 73. The weekly incidence rate (per 100,000 population) climbed to 10.0 – it was 2.0 at the beginning of the month – and the per cent positivity rate is now at 15.6 per cent after starting August at 4.6 per cent.

Outbreaks at hospitals, retirement centres and long term care homes rose to seven for the August 20-26 period after dropping last week from three to two. All but one of the outbreaks are at long term care homes and retirement residences.

Hospital cases are also on the rise, jumping from five to 13 last week and now to 15. There are no patients in ICU, so there’s that.