COVID-19 cases climbing again in Hamilton
A record per cent of tests are coming back positive for COVID-19 in Hamilton as case numbers start to climb again.
The city reported 152 new cases of COVID Monday to bring the pandemic total to 17,681.
Active cases are back up to 1,664 after falling to 1,501 reported on April 26. The high was 1,988 reported on April 24.
Other key metrics have seen similar trends over the last two weeks of setting records, dropping down slightly before starting to increase again.
The daily average of new cases surged to a pandemic high of 181 on April 20 before falling to 146 on April 28. But the seven-day rolling average is back up to 154 as of May 1.
The weekly rate per 100,000 hit a record of 211 on April 20 before dropping to 166 on April 27. It increased again to 180 as of May 1.
Both of these metrics are significantly higher than other waves of the pandemic. The highest average number of new daily cases in the second wave was 137 and the weekly rate topped out at 160 - both on Jan. 3.
The first wave saw a high of 16 average daily infections and a top weekly rate of 19 in the middle of May, although testing was extremely limited compared to other waves.
The number of tests coming back positive for COVID hit a high of 12.2 per cent on Monday, beating the previous record of 11.3 per cent reported on April 28. This metric had been falling for the last four days before spiking back up again.
Around three-quarters of Hamilton's cases in April have been variants, which spread faster and cause more severe illness. The vast majority are B.1.1.7, which originated in the United Kingdom, although there have been three confirmed cases of P.1, which was first identified in Brazil and two of B.1351, first found in South Africa.
Hamilton's hospitals were caring for 152 patients as of Monday. Of the 113 COVID patients at Hamilton Health Sciences, 53 are in the ICU. St. Joseph's Healthcare has 39 COVID patients but the number in ICU wasn't immediately available Monday.
GTA hospitals continue to transfer high numbers of COVID patients to this area with 28 more arriving from Thursday to Sunday.
Of those, 21 went to Hamilton, two to Burlington, four to Niagara and one to Brantford.
In total, 252 COVID patients from the GTA have been transferred to area hospitals from Jan. 11 to May 2.
The city is reporting 38 active outbreaks with the majority linked to a variant.
Infections increased to 31 workers at National Steel Car, which halted its operations on April 23 for two weeks.
Case numbers also went up at CLS Retirement Home to eight infections and at Stackpole International to five cases in workers.
New outbreaks were declared Sunday at the Hamilton Fire Department Station 12 where two workers have tested positive and at State Group Inc. on Burlington Street East where four workers are infected.
Outbreaks were declared over at Pioneer Balloon Canada, Blessings Christian Church and Macassa Lodge.
Joanna Frketich is a Hamilton-based reporter covering health for The Spectator. Reach her via email: jfrketich@thespec.com