Public Health Sudbury and Districts (PHSD) has reported that there are 18 new cases of COVID-19 in the area for Tuesday March 16.
PHSD also said there are now 245 active cases being actively monitored.
This means that since the health unit began tracking COVID-19 cases one year ago, there have now been 1034 total COVID-19 cases confirmed locally.
PHSD also said 789 of those cases have been resolved locally.
As to where the new cases might have occurred, the PHSD daily update page reported that all 18 cases were found to have occurred within the Greater Sudbury Area.
With respect to possible causes of the new cases, PHSD reported two cases as "outbreak associated."
Twenty four new cases were reported at close contact of a confirmed case. Nine new cases were described as no known epidemiological link. These numbers do not correspond with the case count because PHSD does not always reveal new cases on the day they happen.
Also today, PHSD reported that the two warming shelters in downtown Sudbury, the YMCA on Durham Street and the Salvation Army Cedar Place shelter on Cedar Street, both had COVID-19 outbreaks. Clients who were at those centres (Salvation Army on March 9 and YMCA on March 14) are asked to self-isolate and get tested. More information is available to those clients by telephoning 705-522-9200.
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 358 total cases (Three new cases).
Next highest number was 256 cases for the 19 and under age group (Two new cases).
The next highest group number was 230cases for the 40 to 59 age group (Eight new cases).
Seniors in the 60 to 79 age group had only 121 cases total (Four new cases),
and people aged 80 and over were the lowest category with 65 cases (zero increase) and four cases where the age was not specified (One new case).
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 over a week. There are however, 197 cases that are "screened positive" for variants of concern (one new case).
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 number of COVID-19 cases is rising. As reported at noon today, Tuesday March 16, there are 13 confirmed cases of COVID-19. According to the HSN website, this included four COVID patients in the Intensive Care Unit (ICU). There are 16 additional admitted patients currently being investigated for COVID-19 at this time. Two of those patients are in the ICU at this time. The hospital is also coping with two distinct outbreaks, one on the fourth floor and one on the sixth floor, both in the South Tower. Accordingly, the hospital has imposed new visitor restrictions.
On the provincial COVID-19 register today, the Ontario government daily website reported there were 1074 new confirmed COVID-19 cases across the province. Also today, the province reported 11 new deaths had occurred in the previous 24 hours.