Eastern Ontario Health Unit announces additional COVID-19 death from outbreak in May

On Thursday, September 3, the Eastern Ontario Health Unit (EOHU) announced that there had been an additional death due to COVID-19 within its jurisdiction, bringing the total number of deaths to 12.

However, the death did not occur recently.  It took place in May during a COVID-19 outbreak at the Pinecrest Nursing Home in Plantagenet, which also claimed 11 other lives.

EOHU Medical Officer of Health Dr. Paul Roumeliotis said on Thursday that additional death was identified after the system and definition criteria for the identification of COVID-19 cases changed.  He said that the case was not initially thought to be COVID-19 but subsequent changes and investigation have revealed it as such.

Two institutional outbreaks of COVID-19, one at Auberge Plein Soleil in Alfred and one at Dundas Manor in Winchester remained in effect on Thursday.

The number of active cases of COVID-19 across the EOHU’s jurisdiction was at 16 on Thursday, September 3, a decrease of one case from Tuesday, September 1.  The number of cumulative cases had been adjusted to 196, and 168 cases were resolved.

Since the final week of August, the EOHU has been reporting the number of cumulative and active cases of COVID-19 in each of the 17 municipalities across its jurisdiction.  On Thursday, Roumeliotis said that more local statistics will be added in the coming weeks.

In the Town of Hawkesbury on September 3, there were two active cases of COVID-19, one active case in the Township of Alfred and Plantagenet, and two active cases in La Nation Municipality.  There were six active cases in the City of Clarence-Rockland.

As of September 3, there were no active cases in Champlain Township, East Hawkesbury Township, North Glengarry Township, and the Municipality of Casselman.

Since the beginning of the pandemic in March, there have been less than five confirmed cases in Champlain, East Hawkesbury, La Nation, Casselman, and North Glengarry.  The Town of Hawkesbury has had 15 cumulative confirmed cases of COVID-19 since the pandemic began, the Township of Alfred and Plantagenet has had 45 cumulative cases, and the City of Clarence-Rockland has had 34 cumulative cases.

Hospitalizations and testing

As of September 3, 42,192 tests for COVID-19 had been done at the six testing and assessment centres across the EOHU territory, and by paramedics.

The number of COVID-19 patients from the jurisdiction of the EOHU in hospital as of September 3 was zero.

Ontario statistics

The Ontario Ministry of Health had recorded a cumulative 42,686 confirmed cases of COVID-19 across the province as of Wednesday, September 2.  However, 38,625 or 90.5 per cent of those cases were resolved, which means that 4,061 cases were active across Ontario.

There were 60 COVID-19 patients were in hospital across Ontario on September 2.  Out of those 60 patients, 19 were in intensive care, and 9 patients were on ventilators.

As of September 2, there had been 2,812 deaths due to COVID-19 across Ontario.

Cumulative and active COVID-19 cases by municipality across EOHU territory as of Thursday, September 3, 2020.