CORNWALL – There are five recently confirmed COVID-19 cases for the City of Cornwall Thursday but the region’s medical officer of health says they were already in the total, incorrectly attributed to other areas.
Dr. Paul Roumeliotis told Cornwall Newswatch they were linked to Prescott-Russell (four cases) and SD&G (one case) during Wednesday’s data update and that’s been corrected as part of an overall data cleaning procedure. “They are newly attributed to Cornwall but not new cases to our numbers,” he said. There were also adjustments to data in Prescott-Russell due to changes in the CCM system.
Here’s the current breakdown as of Thursday afternoon:
- Prescott-Russell – 502 cases (83 active)
- SD&G – 111 cases (16 active)
- Cornwall – 114 cases (62 active)
- Akwesasne (ON/QC) – 18 cases (nine active)
Roumeliotis explained that a change in definitions from Public Health Ontario will likely mean a future adjustment to the number of deaths in the region attributed to COVID-19.
He said there were 29 deaths attributed to COVID-19. Eleven at Pinecrest in Plantagenet earlier this spring, one at Maxville Manor, two at The Palace in Alexandria, one at St. Jacques Nursing Home in Embrun, 12 of 19 deaths at Prescott-Russell Residence in Hawkesbury and two in the general community.
The doctor also shared new Ontario modelling data that shows a “bleak picture if nothing is done” to control the spread of the virus going into winter. But Eastern Ontario is fairing better than other regions right now.
The rolling weekly average of new cases per 100,000 population in the EOHU area has been going down in recent weeks while other regions across Ontario are on the rise.
Around 3.1 per cent of cases in the local region have no epidemiological link, meaning that 97 per cent of cases can been traced easily, such as the “clusters of cases” in the community or at nursing homes. “At least we know where they are,” Roumeliotis said.
As for making sure those clusters follow isolation measures, Roumeliotis told Newswatch infected people are checked on daily during their quarantine. “For the most part they are. There’s orders for that. We’re satisfied because, let’s say there’s a family of five, and one person was positive. All five are at home so by the time they get the results back, the other ones who are pending have not been out. We do daily checks on them,” he said.
Our positivity rate is 1.3 per cent and 71 per cent of tests are coming back within two days, according to Ontario Laboratory Information System data.
While things seem to bode well, Roumeliotis reminds the public that “this thing can come back any time” and that we are “still in a higher zone.”