Oshawa resident dies as active COVID-19 cases passes 2,000 with 479 new cases reported in Durham

An Oshawa family received the worst kind of Christmas news today with the announcement that a resident has died from COVID-19, the first virus-related death in Durham Region in months.

It is unknown at this time if the death was from a patient in ICU or from a Long-Term Care Home, of if it was from the Delta or Omicron variant.

The news comes as COVID cases are running rampant in Durham and across Canada and the world, with 479 new cases reported in Durham Region yesterday, including 106 in Oshawa, 97 in Whitby and 96 in Ajax. The active case count in the region has passed 2,000, with 2,029 now declared.

Clarington reported 67 new cases of the virus, Pickering 64, Uxbridge 18 and Scugog 14. There were nine cases of unknown origin and eight from Brock Township. There are two people in intensive care.

There are four institutional outbreaks (three in Oshawa), eight workplace outbreaks and 19 in Durham Region schools, with five schools closed as all schools in the region now have shut down for the holidays.

Province-wide, nearly 10,000 new cases of COVID-19 were reported yesterday, with the seven-day average now at 4,923 cases per day with 40,555 active cases.

Despite the rising totals, ICU visits aren’t on a corresponding upswing with just 164 COVID-19 admissions. There were six deaths reported.

There were 229,743 vaccines given in Ontario Thursday, with well-over 90 per cent of them being third, or booster shots. Nearly 20 per cent of eligible Ontarians have received booster shots so far.