Record high for COVID cases and four new deaths — but we no longer know details about them
Hamilton set a record with 162 new COVID infections on the same day the province makes decisions about lockdown.
Hamilton now has a new high of 853 active cases of the virus. As recently as last weekend, the high had been 684.
Four more deaths were reported by the city, but public health will not provide any information about them.
Just days after Hamilton's mayor made a plea to residents to care about seniors dying of COVID, public health stopped giving details of individual deaths. Prior to Thursday, public health would give out the sex, age range and day of death to media upon request.
Based on records kept by The Spectator, it appears all four deaths were seniors in their 80s.
Other significant information that is now missing is whether the person died in an outbreak at a seniors' home or other congregate setting and which one. The importance of transparency in outbreaks was highlighted by the military when it exposed deplorable conditions in long-term-care in the first wave.
The change comes at the same time local and provincial leaders are expressing frustration at having an increasingly difficult time at getting residents to follow public health measures. They say private social gatherings are driving the surge in numbers.
It has left public health so overwhelmed that it says epidemiologists no longer have the time to report on individual deaths.
There are 25 ongoing outbreaks in Hamilton including four schools and daycares, one workplace, two community agencies and 18 institutions, which are primarily seniors' homes.
The city is reporting two new outbreaks in seniors' homes on Thursday after one resident became infected at the Meadows Long-Term-Care Home in Ancaster and one staff member tested positive at retirement home Amica Dundas.
The fast-growing outbreak at Shalom Village, 70 Macklin St. N. in Westdale, is up to 87 cases.
The city's largest and deadliest outbreak at Grace Villa continues to spread hitting 186 cases at the long-term-care home at 45 Lockton Cres. on the east Mountain.
An outbreak on five units at Juravinski Hospital is also increasing and is now at 70 cases, including 30 patients.
More to come ...
Joanna Frketich is a Hamilton-based reporter covering health for The Spectator. Reach her via email: jfrketich@thespec.com