COVID-19 variants have made their way into the Hastings and Prince Edward Community.
At Wednesday’s virtual meeting of the Board of Health, Dr, Ethan Timoushey announced there have been two cases that have screened positive for a variant of concern.
Timoushey said the Public Health Ontario laboratory wasn’t able to provide further information yet of that particular sample.
He added that the cases are not directly linked.
“These cases are not directly linked. One is attached with travel. One attached with a knwn outbreak in another jurisdiction in the province.”
Toumishey added the presence of the variants “reinforces the need to continue to adhere to public health measures as the community has been so successful in doing to reduce the risk of transmission, especially as the vaccine campaign rolls forward.”
He said, “Overall, Hastings Prince Edward Public Health is maintaining contact with cases within 24 hours.”
Toumishey reported that, “Month over month we’re continuing to see a decreasing trend in local cases in February compared to January. The percent positivity for the area remains low o.5 percent. We have seen in the last few weeks an increasing trend
for cases. We only have 21 active cases following up on. The case and contact team management team maintains rapid connection with cases and contacts in the area.”
He pointed out, “We’re seeing some cases that are having no epidemiology links …not arising from known outbreaks or known travel to area where you have higher COVID-19. This belies that you would have a continuing level of community risk for COVID-19 and potential community spread that arises even though we maintain low levels compared to the rest of the province.”
Latest statistics show there have been six deaths linked to the virus since the pandemic began.
