There’s been another COVID-19 death in Peterborough, with 21 new positive cases of the disease reported in the Peterborough area so far this week.
During a Peterborough Public Health media briefing held Friday (January 29), medical officer of health Dr. Rosana Salvaterra would only confirm the person who died in hospital Friday — the eight death in the Peterborough area since the pandemic began — is a resident of a congregate setting. She provided no details as to age or gender.
While the advent of 21 new cases this week isn’t ideal, the weekly positive case count has declined steadily since the week of December 28th when a record weekly count of 71 new cases were reported. That said, the January total of 188 new cases to date represents a new monthly high locally, well eclipsing the previous high monthly number of 137 recorded in December.
On the vaccination front, Dr. Salvaterra noted residents of four of the region’s long-term care homes — Fairhaven and Riverview Manor in Peterborough, Extendicare Lakefield, and Pleasant Meadow Manor in Norwood — have received their first dose of the Moderna vaccine. In total, 409 residents have been immunized, along with 43 home staff.
“We had two adverse events, one which necessitated a hospital visit, but both cases have recovered,” said Dr. Salvaterra, noting Peterborough Public Health has been told to expect its next shipment of the Moderna vaccine by February 5th at the earliest.
“It is a delay … we were hoping to get it (the shipment) by February 1st,” Dr. Salvaterra said. “Moderna advised yesterday (Thursday) that its next shipment won’t be arriving in Toronto until February 4th.”
“We were hoping to get all of our long-term care residents immunized by February 5th,” she said. “I expect that deadline will have to be revised given what we have now learned about the Moderna shipment.”
Dr. Salvaterra added the question she is asked most frequently concerns the order in which local vaccinations will roll out in the months ahead.
“It’s important that residents understand that the province has decided the order in which people will receive their vaccine, with the end goal of enough vaccine for anyone who wants it by September,” she said.
“Local public health has been tasked with identifying any local priorities within that provincial sequencing framework,” Dr. Salvaterra explained. ” We’ve created a local committee to oversee this as well as the create a bigger plan for all three phases of the (vaccine) rollout.”
The committee, she added, has had three meetings to date.
“Phase two occurs when immunization clinics are held. This is our mass immunization phase. It’s dependent on an adequate vaccine supply, so it’s hard to say exactly when these clinics will start. We have them starting in April but, right now, I can say they’ll being in the spring. If we get more vaccine in March, they could start earlier.”
Moving forward, updates on local vaccination progress will be posted each Friday on the health unit’s data tool at localcovidtracker.ca.
Overall local COVID-19 numbers show that, as of Friday morning, there were 50 active COVID-19 cases in Peterborough city and county, Curve Lake, and Hiawatha region with 76 close contacts of positive cases being monitored.
Since the pandemic began, Peterborough Public Health has reported a total of 535 cases, of which 478 have been resolved. To date, 41,400 residents have been tested for a 28 per cent testing rate.
As for outbreaks, the most recent one was declared Tuesday at Peterborough Retirement Resident. It involves three staff members, Dr. Salvaterra said, with no cases detected amongst the residents.
Previously reported outbreaks at the Peterborough Regional Health Centre (in units A2 and B2 designated for stroke rehabilitation and affecting 12 people), at Regency Retirement in Lakefield, and at Centennial Place Long-Term Care in Millbrook are ongoing but reported as stable and heading toward being resolved.
Also present and commenting during Tuesday’s briefing were Peterborough-Kawartha MP Maryam Monsef, Peterborough-Kawartha MPP Dave Smith, Northumberland-Peterborough South MPP David Piccini, Peterborough Mayor Diane Therrien, Hiawatha First Nations Chief Laurie Carr, and Peterborough Board of Health chair and Selwyn Mayor Andy Mitchell.
