- Anne Finlay-Stewart, Editor
Since the first full day of summer, June 21, Grey-Bruce has seen 393 new confirmed cases of COVID-19. As of Friday, that was the highest incident rate in Ontario.
Owen Sound had 107 of those new cases. That represents about 0.5% of our population infected in less than three weeks.
Public Health directs every person who is a confirmed case or high-risk contact to be in isolation. Although the emphasis has been on transient and homeless people, every one of those who have been reported to us at the Owen Sound Hub has been a paying tenant or homeowner, in all quadrants of the City and beyond its limits. Only one person, since we began sharing the Health Unit's situation report in 2020, has been listed as “no fixed address”.
Georgian Bluffs had the highest positivity rate in Ontario this week (by postal code); Owen Sound the fifth highest.
With no more Greyhound buses, regional buses restricted in ridership and enforcing mask wearing, and enhanced public wariness of hitchhikers, mobility between communities is limited. Taxis have been an area of concern, as Public Health indicated in a media release earlier this week.
Workplaces too have become reported sites of active cases and transmission. According to an article by Scott Dunn in the Sun Times earlier in the week, Dr. Arra,the Medical Officer of Health (MOH) was urging employers to be vigilant in screening employees in the coming weeks “to ensure none is allowed to work when they may be sick.” As many as 50% of cases are aquired from carriers who asymptomatic or presymptomatic. source: Journal of the American Medical Association 2021(4)
The MOH went on to say “Employees should wear masks and now eye protection, since the Delta variant has been shown to infect people wearing masks alone.”
Ontario's new Chief Medical Officer of Health, Dr. Kieran Moore said in a media event Friday that the province has reached the criteria for Step 3 and will be re-opening with those remaining restrictions Friday, July 9. In answer to a question about Waterloo Region, Dr. Moore said every Medical Officer of Health has the authority to use a Section 22 order to impose local restrictions.
“The province will remain in Step 3 for at least 21 days (July 30) and until 80% of the eligible population aged 12 and over has received one dose of a COVID-19 vaccine, and 75% have received their second, with no public health unit having less than 70% of their eligible population aged 12 and over fully vaccinated.” source: Ontario.ca
Public Health Ontario has noted: "Of the almost 9.9 million vaccinated individuals only 0.16% (15,592 individuals including both symptomatic and asymptomatic cases) became infected when they were partially vaccinated and only 0.02% (1,635 individuals) became infected when they were fully vaccinated; as these were fully vaccinated individuals, these are considered breakthrough cases."
"The majority (51.7%) of post-vaccination cases identified were not yet protected from vaccination when they acquired their infection, as their symptom onset date was within 0 to <14 days following dose 1 administration."
"Only 4.6% of cases post-vaccination occurred 14 or more days after dose 2 administration and are considered breakthrough cases."
These are the current numbers for Ontario as a whole:
Sources: Ontario government and COVID-19 Canada Open Data Working Group. Star graphic
Grey Bruce is about 5% behind Ontario for a first dose, but a little ahead on full vaccination.
For those who like more detail or comparison, the Public Health websites of any Health Unit provide breakdowns by a variety of critera. Public Health Ontario provides province-wide numbers.
These graphics are from the Grey Bruce Health Unit.
