Here are the latest local, regional and national headlines on the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) for Tuesday, February 16, 2021:
- (Public Health Ontario did not update stats Monday due to Family Day. The following is a repeat from Sunday. Statistics are to be released at 10:30 a.m. today.) There have been 285,868 confirmed cases of COVID-19 across Ontario. There are 267,128 people recovered from the virus while 6,693 people have died. The number of Ontario people tested is 10,375,912 of which 15,947 have pending results.
- Canada’s coronavirus case total is 826,924. The country has 21,311 deaths from the virus – one in the Yukon, one in Nunavut, 1,288 in British Columbia, 1,782 in Alberta, 354 in Saskatchewan, 871 in Manitoba, 6,693 in Ontario, 10,229 in Quebec, 23 in New Brunswick, four in Newfoundland & Labrador and 65 in Nova Scotia.
- The Leeds, Grenville and Lanark District Health Unit stands at 840 total confirmed cases, of which 17 are active and 769 are recovered. Fifty-four people have died to date. There are two people in hospital, one in the ICU on a ventilator. There are no active institutional outbreaks. The community case breakdown is: Lanark County East 147 cases (one active), Lanark County West 157 cases (10 active), Leeds-Grenville Central 95 cases (four active), Leeds-Grenville East 120 cases (zero active) and Leeds-Grenville West 120 cases (two active). (The health unit doesn’t update statistics on weekends and statutory holidays)
- The Eastern Ontario Health Unit area stands at 2,635 total cases. The number of active cases is 144 and resolved cases is 2,428. Sixty-three people have died to date. There are 19 people are in hospital. There are 13 active institutional outbreaks. Testing is at 105,843. The breakdown of cases is: Prescott-Russell 1,167 cases (32 active), SD&G 592 cases (51 active), Cornwall 699 cases (50 active) and Akwesasne (ON/QC) 177 cases (11 active). (The health unit doesn’t update statistics on weekends and statutory holidays)
- This is the first day we move out of the stay-at-home order and lockdown and into the colour-coded COVID-19 response framework. The Eastern Ontario Health Unit will be in the orange-restrict category while the Leeds, Grenville and Lanark District Health Unit is in the green-prevent level.
- Blood donations are resuming at Canadian Blood Services in Ottawa, Kingston and other areas of Eastern Ontario. The facility in Ottawa was shut down a week-and-a-half ago after five confirmed cases of COVID-19 within the production and distribution facility.
- There should be a significant jump in the amount of vaccine deliveries to Canada this week. The federal government says it expects more than 400,000 doses of the Pfizer vaccine every week until the first week of April.
- The federal government is spending $53 million to expand its capacity to find and track COVID-19 variants, such as the ones originating in the United Kingdom, South Africa and Brazil. The strategy will standardize data sharing across Canada to help with information flow about variants on national and international databases.
- The World Health Organization has approved the AstraZeneca vaccine. That should allow company partners to start shipping doses to countries as part of the United Nations supported COVAX program to deal with the pandemic.
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