Hamilton sees 161 new COVID cases, one death
Hamilton is reporting 161 new COVID-19 cases and one death Saturday, on the heels of Premier Doug Ford's announcement late Friday afternoon that additional restrictions such as outdoor amenity closures and provincial border checkpoints would be implemented to curb virus spread.
The city also hit its highest per capita rate of 197 cases per 100,000 population weekly, following the highest daily case count seen so far during the pandemic with 247 cases on Friday.
One person over the age of 80 died, bringing the city's total deaths to 344.
Eight outbreaks were declared, including two outbreaks that screened positive for variants of concern: Two staff members tested positive at Hamilton Police's Investigative Services Division on Wilson Street and four staff members tested positive at Unified Engineering on Niagara Street north of Burlington Street East.
The other outbreaks were: Good Shepherd Cathedral Boys School shelter with one staff case, Hamilton General Hospital customer support services with three staff cases, Salvation Army has one staff case at the Lawson Ministries supportive housing facility at Main Street East and Wentworth Street South, R.L. Hyslop Elementary School in Stoney Creek has one staff and one student case, and three children tested positive at Today's Family child care in Ancaster.
The Sherman Avenue location of Kelly's Residence, a supportive housing facility, also declared one resident case. Three other locations have ongoing outbreaks: three staff and one resident case at the Stinson Street location; two resident cases at the Proctor Boulevard location; and 13 residents and six staff cases at the Main Street East location.
Last week, the residential care operator said that staff have been restricted to work at one single location as a result of the outbreak, where prior to that they were attending multiple sites.
The city is managing 40 active outbreaks overall, and has 1,388 active cases. The cumulative case count for Hamilton is up to 15,146 cases.
Hamilton has also screened 192 new variant cases.
The city has 26 confirmed cases of variants of concern, including 23 first identified in the U.K., two identified in Brazil and one associated with South Africa, plus another 1,770 suspected variant cases.
Hamilton's 5.6 per cent positivity rate is more than double the 2.5 per cent benchmark used by epidemiologists to indicate that the virus spread is under control.