COVID-19 in Sudbury & districts: Your weekly update January 14, 2021

Reporting period: Thursday, January 7, 2021, to Wednesday, January 13, 2021.

January 14, 2021 — The following is a summary of how the status of COVID-19 has changed in Public Health Sudbury & Districts’ service area over the last seven days up to end of day January 13, 2021: 76 new cases, 32 cases were resolved, 0 deaths occurred. Two (2) outbreaks were active, 1 in a long-term care home and 1 in a retirement home. One (1) of those outbreaks was declared over. At end of day January 13, 2021, there were 76 active cases in our service area, and 1 active outbreak. Eleven (11) cases were hospitalized, while the rest were self-isolating.

Since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, there have been a total of 380 local cases of which 304 are resolved, and two people have died in our service area.

Trends in the past seven days

• Of the 76 new cases in our service area, 36 were associated with an outbreak, while 27 were close contacts of confirmed cases. This means that Public Health identified how these people were exposed to COVID-19 and was able to take quick action to prevent further spread. The source of exposure was unknown for 5 cases, while 3 were travel-related and 4 cases remain under investigation.
• Sixty-nine (69) of the cases were from Greater Sudbury, while 5 reside in the Manitoulin District, and 2 reside in the Sudbury District.
• By end of day on January 13, contact tracing information was available for all 76 of the new cases. Through our investigation, we identified 184 people who had high-risk close contacts with these cases. That is an average of 3 high-risk close contacts per case, compared to 7 contacts per case on average last week. Public Health follows up directly and regularly with every high-risk close contact to monitor them for symptoms, ensure they are self-isolating, and make recommendations for testing according to provincial guidance.
• The 7-day incidence rate was 38.2 new cases per 100 000 population (compared to 14.6 for the previous 7 days).
• The percent positivity was 1.3% for the period of January 5 to January 11 (compared to 0.91% for the previous 7 days).
• For the period of January 6 to 12, the effective reproductive number (Rt) was 1.4 for Northern Ontario, and 1.1 for Ontario overall.

Stay COVID-safe

• Stay home unless for essential needs like picking up groceries, accessing medical or health care services, or for essential work or school.
• It is important to get outside for exercise even during the state of emergency. If you do enjoy an outdoor activity, remember to keep two metres distance from people you do not live with, and wear a face covering or a mask when you can’t stay distanced. Remember, outdoor gatherings are restricted to a limit of five people with limited exceptions.
• Remember to screen for symptoms prior to attending school. Stay home if you have symptoms or don’t feel well, wear a mask if you are using public transit, and maintain a physical distance of two metres from others. We owe it to our children to keep schools safe and we owe it to each other to prevent further spread of COVID-19.
• Remind your children and students to follow the added health and safety measures at school. Make sure all students in Grade 1 and up have a mask for school. Some schools have additional rules. Remember that masks must be worn outdoors if two metres distance cannot be maintained.
• The Province of Ontario has started distributing COVID-19 vaccines. COVID-19 vaccines are safe and effective. They were approved for use by Health Canada through a rigorous fast track, or rolling, approval process (Government of Canada). Stay up-to-date on the latest COVID-19 vaccine developments by checking Public Health’s COVID-19 vaccine webpage.

What’s new

• This week, the Wikwemikong Nursing Home in Wiikwemkoong Unceded Territory received the first delivery of the Moderna COVID-19 vaccine in Public Health Sudbury & Districts’ service area. Public Health worked with the community and nursing home to provide support with immunizations of staff and residents.
• On January 12, 2021, a province-wide state of emergency (Government of Ontario) was declared to protect Ontarians from COVID-19. A stay-at-home order was also announced and is currently in effect for all Ontarians.
• Enhanced public health and workplace safety measures (Government of Ontario) are in effect as part of the Provincewide Shutdown.
• This week, students in Northern Ontario returned to in-person learning. Locally, we have seen very few cases among school-aged children and at this time the benefits to in-person learning outweigh the risks. We are fortunate that schools remain open for in-person learning in Sudbury and districts. As always, through case and contact management, we monitor our local situation and context to inform decisions and recommendations.
• We are working closely with our partners in education to ensure the safety of staff and students. It’s important to remember that school settings have many infection prevention protocols in place. These include but are not limited to symptom screening, increased hand hygiene, masking requirements, cohorting, and ongoing COVID-safety reminders.

Message from Dr. Penny Sutcliffe, Medical Officer of Health

The COVID-19 vaccine has arrived in Northeastern Ontario! This is a very exciting time for Public Health, as we embark in this unprecedented vaccination program. This week, we supported our first vaccine clinic at the Wikwemikong Nursing Home, a historic moment in which we were honoured to be a part of while working collaboratively with Wiikwemkoong Unceded Territory. We are patiently waiting to hear when our next vaccine delivery will be, but rest assured, Public Health and our community partners will be ready when vaccines arrive. As the vaccine begins to rollout across our region, our teams continue their case and contact management activities, which have intensified with the most recent influx of cases. The recent rise in cases locally and provincially have prompted Ontario to declare a second provincial emergency and issue a stay-at-home order. As we’ve seen recently, our communities are not immune to the rising number of COVID-19 cases. We all must stay home unless there are essential reasons to leave our homes. Lives and livelihoods are depending on it.

Regular updates

Visit phsd.ca/COVID-19/data for regular updates about COVID-19 testing, confirmed cases, as well as outbreaks and potential exposures in Greater Sudbury, the District of Sudbury, and the District of Manitoulin. In addition, a detailed epidemiology summary is posted Mondays and Thursdays that includes information about cases over time, case characteristics, probable exposures, case outcomes, testing, and outbreaks in facilities.

For more information or if you have questions, please visit phsd.ca/COVID-19 or call Public Health Sudbury & Districts at 705.522.9200 (toll-free 1.866.522.9200).