Public Health Sudbury and Districts (PHSD) has reported that there are 30 new cases of COVID-19 in the area for March 19.
PHSD also said there are now 269 active cases being actively monitored, an increase of eight from Thursday.
This means that since the health unit began tracking COVID-19 cases one year ago, there have now been 1,130 total COVID-19 cases confirmed locally.
PHSD also said 861 of those cases have been resolved locally.
With respect to where the new cases might have occurred, the PHSD daily update page reported that 28 cases were found to have occurred within the Greater Sudbury Area, one in the Sudbury District and one in the Manitoulin area.
With respect to possible causes of the new cases, PHSD reported 17 cases as outbreak associated.
Seventeen new cases were reported as close contact of a confirmed case. Nine new cases were listed as under investigation.
Five 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.
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 397 total cases (14 new cases).
Next highest number was 264 cases for both the 40 to 59 age group (12 new cases) as well as the 19 and under age group (one new case).
Seniors in the 60 to 79 age group had only 132 cases total (two new cases), and people aged 80 and over were the lowest category with 68 cases (no new cases) and five cases where the age was not specified (one new case).
VARIANTS:
PHSD is also reporting there are still only three cases of "confirmed" variants of the COVID-19 virus.
There are however, 231 cases that are "screened positive" for variants of concern, an increase of 23 cases since Thursday.
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.
THREE OUTBREAKS
At Sudbury's Health Sciences North, the number of COVID-19 cases is rising. As reported at noon today, Friday, March 19, there are 20 confirmed cases of COVID-19 at the hospital. According to the HSN website, this included eight COVID patients in the Intensive Care Unit (ICU).
There are 19 additional admitted patients currently being "investigated" for COVID-19. Two of those patients is in the ICU at this time. The hospital is also coping with three distinct outbreaks, one on the fourth floor, one on the sixth floor, both in the South Tower and one on the seventh floor - North Tower.
Accordingly, the hospital has imposed new visitor restrictions, but hospital services are continuing.
On the provincial COVID-19 register today, the Ontario government daily website reported there were 1,745 new confirmed COVID-19 cases across the province. Also today, the province reported 10 new deaths had occurred in the previous 24 hours.