Here are the latest local, regional and national headlines on the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) for Friday, October 1, 2021:
- Public Health Ontario did not update statistics Thursday due to the National Day for Truth and Reconciliation federal statutory holiday. At last check there were 585,502 confirmed cases, 570,790 people recovered and 9,723 deaths. The number of Ontario people tested for coronavirus is just over 18 million.
- Canada’s coronavirus case total on Wednesday was 1,620,137 with 27,819 deaths across the country since the pandemic began.
- The Eastern Ontario Health Unit stands at 5,330 confirmed cases, of which 182 are active and 5,034 are resolved. There are 114 deaths to date. There are nine people in hospital and four in the ICU. There are 11 institutional outbreaks. Testing is at 159,059. The breakdown of cases is: Prescott-Russell 2,150 cases (36 active), SD&G 1,244 cases (27 active), Cornwall 1,543 cases (107 active) and Akwesasne (ON/QC) 393 cases (12 active)(Akwesasne health department reports one new case Wednesday: 416 total cases, 14 active). (The health unit doesn’t update statistics on statutory holidays.)
- The Leeds, Grenville and Lanark District Health Unit stands at a regional total of 1,887 confirmed cases, of which 15 are active and 1,812 are recovered. There are 60 deaths to date. There are two people in hospital. There are no active institutional outbreaks. The community case breakdown is: Lanark County East 416 cases (four active), Lanark County West 421 cases (one active), Leeds-Grenville Central 224 cases (seven active), Leeds-Grenville East 387 cases (two active), Leeds-Grenville West 210 cases (one active) and Unknown/Out of Region 21 cases (zero active). (The health unit doesn’t update statistics on statutory holidays.)
- Vaccines: Ontario 21,742,456 (+38,297, last update Sept. 29); EOHU 310,850 (last update Sept. 29, +705 from previous update Sept. 28); LGL 145,254 individuals living in LGL with first doses, 136,562 with second doses (last update Sept. 21, +1,511 first doses, +1,404 second doses since previous update Sept. 14).
- There were new cases reported at Bridgewood Public School in Cornwall and Morrisburg Public School, the public school board disclosed Thursday. The board says the person at Morrisburg Public School was not at school while infectious so there was no school exposure. Both schools are open.
- A fourth person has been charged in connection to the Ontario COVID-19 relief funding investigation. A 41-year-old Brampton man was charged with possession of an identity document and possession of property obtained by crime. OPP say it’s the same investigation that saw a former bureaucrat, his spouse and another man charged earlier this month.
- Nova Scotia families will receive rapid test kits for their children in junior kindergarten to Grade 6. It’s part of a pilot program called Test to Protect Kids that will hand out 320,000 tests.
- The U.S. National School Boards Association has asked the president for help after it says members are being put on watch lists and threatened face-to-face and online over COVID-19 mandates.
- Police in Quebec have handed out 34 tickets so far in relation to the province’s vaccine passport system. The proof of vaccination system has been in place since Sept. 1 but there were no fines issued due the two week grace period.
- Two B.C. school boards are requiring children in kindergarten to Grade 3 to mask up. That group was left out of an order by the provincial health officer in March. The school boards are in Vancouver and Surrey.
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