Hamilton tops 700 active COVID cases, 230 new infections reported over weekend
Hamilton reported 230 new COVID-19 cases over the weekend as infections and outbreaks continue to surge.
The city added 88 COVID-19 cases Sunday, which followed 142 new cases Saturday, far exceeding the city's previous single-day record of 108 cases reported Nov. 30 and Dec 4.
Active cases shot above 700 for the first time. As of Sunday afternoon there were 716 active cases in the city, an increase of 32 over the previous record high of 684 on Saturday.
The city reported five deaths linked to COVID-19 over the weekend, bringing the total to 114.
Two residents of Grace Villa - home of Hamilton's largest ongoing long-term care outbreak - died on Friday. According to the city, the deceased were a woman in her early 60s and a man in his early 80s.
Saturday saw two more Grace Villa residents - a woman in her late 80s and a woman in her early 90s - succumb to the disease.
A woman in her early 80s died at St. Joseph's Villa on Dec. 9 but her death was not reported until Saturday.
Shalom Village Nursing Home is grappling with the COVID-19 outbreak that grew exponentially over the weekend. As of Sunday afternoon the city was reporting 48 lab-confirmed positive cases at the Westdale long-term-care home, including 38 residents and nine staff members, as well as one visitor.
That is a sharp increase from the seven cases initially reported when the outbreak was declared on Friday, a tally that jumped to 13 on Saturday.
The outbreak initially affected five staff members, one residents and the visitor.
City spokesperson Jacqueline Durlov said it is not unusual" to see a large jump in cases in the early stages of an institutional outbreak due to mass testing of all residents and staff.
Shalom Village interim CEO Dr. Larry Levin and Kathleen Thomas, executive director of the Shalom Village Foundation, shared the news with families and stakeholders in an email Sunday afternoon.
As you know, the Shalom Village team has worked tirelessly to ensure the safety of all our residents and staff. Despite our best efforts and our record of success for the past 9 months, Shalom Village has recently had incidents of both, staff and residents testing positive for COVID-19," the email reads.
We discovered this quickly and we are working closely with public health to ensure that all necessary precautions are being implemented and followed with great care. To keep everyone informed, family members and residents are being updated as the situation evolves."
The email says the Shalom Village leadership team will host a town-hall meeting to update family members and loved ones, and answer questions about the outbreak. Details of the meeting will be posted to the home's Facebook page on Monday.
New outbreaks were declared at Ridgeview Long Term Care Home and Amica Retirement Home, both in Stoney Creek. One staff member at each facility tested positive.
Five additional people, three patients and two staff, were infected at the outbreak in five units at Juravinski Hospital and Cancer Centre. Forty four people are now infected: 24 patients, 18 staff and two learners."
On Friday, Haldimand-Norfolk reported its first COVID-19 death in months. The local health unit has now conclusively linked 33 deaths to the virus. The health unit did not provide any information about the deceased, citing privacy concerns.
Hamilton has a total of 4,162 COVID-19 cases since the beginning of the pandemic. Of those cases, 3,297 have been resolved.
The city was spared Friday from the lockdown many have been bracing for - Windsor-Essex and York weren't so lucky. But one expert, McMaster University associate professor Dominik Mertz, is warning Hamiltonians that a holiday lockdown will be unavoidable" unless the spread of COVID-19 is reined in.
J.P. Antonacci's reporting is funded by the Canadian government through its Local Journalism Initiative. The funding allows him to report on stories about the regions of Haldimand and Norfolk.- With files from Jeremy Kemeny, The Hamilton Spectator