May has seen the largest number of COVID-19 cases in a single month in our district since the start of the pandemic.
That’s according to Dr. Jim Chirico, our area’s Medical Officer of Health.
The information was provided at the beginning of the Health Unit’s weekly media conference Thursday morning.
“May long weekend marks the unofficial start to summer, however, this does not mark the end of COVID-19, he says.
There are 38 active cases of COVID-19 in the district, with 426 total cases since the start of the pandemic.
Last week, the province extended the shutdown to at least June 2nd.
“Until we are able to get everyone vaccinated our only way to lower provincial numbers, and local numbers, is for everyone to follow public health measures. By following public health measures and booking their vaccine appointment we can help make this our last shutdown,” Chirico adds.
Shannon Mantha, Executive Director of Clinical Services and Chief Nursing Officer, reported the district has recorded 32 cases of COVID-19 in the past seven days.
She also noted 22 percent were outbreak-related, from outside of the district.
“Absolutely it reinforces the need to continue to follow all of the public health measures that are in place and continue to follow the provincial stay-at-home order until at least June 2nd,” she says. “Taking all of those precautions is really, really key because things can change in an instant in our district and we’re trying to keep case counts low. The best way we can do that is to protect ourselves and follow all the measures and get vaccinated.”
As of Thursday morning, the Health Unit website shows 60,514 residents in the district have received at least one dose of vaccine.
Andrea McLellan, Director COVID-19 Immunization Strategy says they’re pleased with the numbers of people getting vaccinated.
“We’re seeing a significant uptake of vaccine throughout the district, all of our clinics are filling up and we are very pleased with the turnout at the clinics and how well the clinics are running and the fact that so many people are anxious to receive their vaccine,” she says.
55.7 percent of adults in the district have received at least one dose of vaccine.