Public Health Sudbury and Districts (PHSD) has reported that there are 38 new cases of COVID-19 in the area for Sunday March 15.
PHSD also said there are now 291 active cases being actively monitored.
This means that since the pandemic was declared in March 2020, there have now been 1011 total COVID-19 cases reported to the Sudbury health unit. PHSD said 720 of those cases have been resolved locally.
As to where the new cases might have occurred, the PHSD daily update page reported that 38 cases were found to have occurred within the Greater Sudbury Area.
With respect to possible causes of the new cases, PHSD reported 19 cases as "outbreak associated."
Ten cases were reported as close contact of a confirmed case.
Twenty-four cases were described as no known epidemiological link.
The numbers reported by PHSD do not always correspond to the case count as the health unit does not always report the causes on the same days as the case count increase.
Also today, it was reported there is an outbreak at Immaculate Conception School in Val Caron "after another person tested positive for the virus" said the release from PHSD.
"Public Health is working closely with the school community and Sudbury Catholic District School Board to ensure all necessary public health measures are put into place to identify potential cases and limit spread. Parents and guardians will receive specific public health guidance. Previously dismissed individuals must continue to follow the guidance provided by public health," said PHSD.
This information is in addition to an earlier news story on Sudbury.Com today outlining other schools in the district where positive COVID-19 cases have been discovered.
PHSD also reports general demographics each day to provide basic information on the people who are becoming infected.
This shows that the majority of cases are persons in the 20 to 39 age category with 352 total cases (18 new cases).
Next highest number was 253 cases for the 19 and under age group (7 new cases).
The next highest group number was 222 cases for the 40 to 59 age group (11 new cases).
Seniors in the 60 to 79 age group had only 116 cases total (Two new cases),
and people aged 80 and over were the lowest category with 65 cases (zero increase) and three cases where the age was not specified.
The numbers may not completely correspond with the daily case count because PHSD does not always report changes on the day they occur.
VARIANTS:
PHSD is also reporting there are still only three cases of "confirmed" variants of the COVID-19 virus.
This hasn't changed in several days. There are however, 158 cases that are "screened positive" for variants of concern (six new cases).
PHSD said additional time is required to genetically-sequence the virus in a positive sample and confirm it as a COVID-19 variant of concern.
At Sudbury's Health Sciences North, the information for Sunday has not been updated yet. HSN did reveal late Friday there is an COVID outbreak confined to Hallway-G, Sixth Floor, South Tower. On Saturday, a second outbreak was reported on the hospital’s fourth floor.
There were six confirmed COVID patients in the hospital, Friday March 12, 2021. According to the HSN website, there are no COVID patients in the Intensive Care Unit (ICU). There were 19 additional admitted patients currently being investigated for COVID-19 at that time.
On the provincial COVID-19 register today, the Ontario government daily website reported there were 1747 new confirmed COVID-19 cases across the province. Also today, the province reported 15 new deaths had occurred in the previous 24 hours.