TORONTO Public health officials in Ontario are taking further measures to trace a more contagious strain of COVID-19 that s been found in a number of regions since it was first detected in the Toronto area a month ago.
As of Monday, 38 cases of the new variant, which was first reported in the U.K. late last year, had been confirmed in the province.
The new variant is deemed to have caused a deadly outbreak at a long-term care home in Barrie, Ont., that has infected more than 200 people. The local public health unit was investigating whether it was a factor in another regional care home outbreak.
Here are the latest local, regional and national headlines on the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) for Tuesday, January 26, 2021:
There have been 256,960 confirmed cases of COVID-19 across Ontario, an increase of 1,958 (or 0.8 per cent) from the previous day. There are 227,494 people recovered from the virus while 5,846 people have died. The number of Ontario people tested is 9,344,959 of which 14,991 have pending results.
Canada’s coronavirus case total is 753,011. The country has 19,238 deaths from the virus – one in the Yukon, one in Nunavut, 1,154 in British Columbia, 1,574 in Alberta, 254 in Saskatchewan, 804 in Manitoba, 5,846 in Ontario, 9,521 in Quebec, 14 in New Brunswick, four in Newfoundland & Labrador and 65 in Nova Scotia.
SHARE ON: Public Health Sudbury & Districts is confirming that this week marks the start of the much-anticipated vaccination program for residents of long-term care and high-risk retirement homes.
Medical officer of health Dr. Penny Sutcliffe says the agency is receiving shipments of the Moderna COVID-19 vaccine over the next two weeks in quantities sufficient to immunize all residents of the facilities in its service area by February 5th.
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Algoma Public Health is reporting the second COVID-19 related death in the Algoma District.
Dr. Jennifer Loo, the medical officer of health, offered condolences to the family and out of respect to them, no further information will be shared.
TORONTO For the first time since December, Ontario is reporting fewer than 1,800 new cases of COVID-19 as the number of tests performed falls well below provincial lab capacity. The 1,740 infections reported on Tuesday represent a drop from the 1,958 on Monday and are down further from the 2,417 cases logged on Sunday. The last time new case numbers were that low was on Dec. 13 when 1,677 cases were added. However, with only 30,717 tests processed in the last 24 hours, Ontario s COVID-19 positivity rate stands at 5.9 per cent. The province has previously said that labs across the province can process up to 70,000 tests per day.
Ontario wrestles with how to contain more contagious variant of COVID-19
Officials are debating whether additional public health measures are needed to rein in a COVID-19 variant first detected in the United Kingdom that is now spreading in Ontario.
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CBC News ·
Posted: Jan 26, 2021 6:00 AM ET | Last Updated: January 26
Ontario Premier Doug Ford speaks during a COVID-19 Vaccine Distribution Task Force meeting at the legislature on Dec. 4. (Chris Young/The Canadian Press)