Hamilton reports 45 new COVID-19 cases, the lowest daily number since March

There are 45 new cases of COVID-19 in Hamilton as of Tuesday, which according to city data online is the lowest daily case count seen since March.

The new cases follow the May long weekend and bring Hamilton's total number of cases during the pandemic to 20,171. 

Dr. Elizabeth Richardson, the city's medical officer of health, said there's always a concern people will "go further" than what's permitted under the province's regulations, but she hopes people stayed the course. 

"If they don't [follow guidelines], we're going to have a longer time period to this reopening than we would like," she said in Wednesday's media briefing.  

Richardson said there are 114 cases per 100,000 people a week, with a seven-day moving average just below the 100-mark.

"That is good to see those numbers coming down," she said.

Reopening dates not set in stone

Paul Johnson, director of the city's emergency operations centre, said there were seven charges laid over the weekend with connections to gatherings. But most tickets, he said, continue to be unrelated to COVID-19, such as breaking rules at waterfalls. 

While amenities like golf courses and tennis courts opened up on Saturday, both Johnson and Mayor Fred Eisenberger emphasized that the next anticipated date for loosening restrictions isn't set in stone. 

The province has said it will enter Phase 1 of its three-step reopening plan the week of June 13, but that this would be contingent on health-care indicators and vaccination rates. 

Johnson said he's hearing from people wanting to know more details about the plan, but Ontario hasn't further specified. 

"The short answer right now from us is we don't know," he said. "But as soon as we find out, we'll publish that information."

There are 726 people who currently have the virus in the city, which has decreased by 156 cases since Friday. 

According to City of Hamilton data, 378 people have died. 

Richardson said variants of concern account for 73 per cent of new cases. 

There are 41 active outbreaks, of which one is new — two staff at the Food Basics located at 2500 Barton St. E. have tested positive for the virus. 

One more staff member at Image Honda has tested positive, growing its outbreak to 10 people infected. 

St. Joseph's Healthcare Hamilton is treating 37 patients with the virus and 24 are in the intensive care unit (ICU) with a COVID-19 related illness.

Hamilton Health Sciences is caring for 61 COVID-19 patients, with 24 in the ICU. 

There have been 290,136 doses of the vaccine administered in Hamilton. Richardson said about 6,400 youth aged 12 and older have made vaccination bookings for the following weeks after Ontario expanded eligibility on the weekend. 

Last week, Richardson said during a general issues committee meeting that people were showing up for appointments and leaving if it was the Moderna vaccine.

She said the city has recently "changed its tactics" to announce what vaccine is being used at a clinic in advance of people booking their spots. 

This means people coming to the clinic would be aware of what vaccine was being offered, Richardson said, and "we wouldn't have to end up with vaccine appointments where no vaccine was ending up in somebody's arm." 

Brant

There are seven new cases of COVID-19 in Brant, which bring the county's total overall to 3,179. Of these, 108 cases are active and 3,051 are resolved. 

The number of deaths stands at 20, and six people are in hospital with COVID-19. 

The county has administered 79,778 vaccination doses. 

Haldimand-Norfolk

There were 14 new cases of COVID-19 and one more death reported in the counties of Haldimand and Norfolk on Tuesday.

They've reported a combined 2,617 cases throughout the pandemic, which includes 80 that are active and 2,486 people that have recovered. 

Forty-five deaths related to COVID-19 have been reported. 

The number of vaccine doses administered was at 52,623. 

Niagara

There are 931 active cases of COVID-19 in Niagara, with 27 new ones reported on Tuesday. There have been a total of 15,563 cases seen during the pandemic, of which 14,227 are marked as resolved. 

Four hundred and five people have lost their lives. 

The region has administered 261,443 vaccine doses to Niagara residents.

Halton

Halton reported 83 new cases of COVID-19 for a total of 17,334 cases during the pandemic. 

There are 387 active cases and 16,724 people who recovered. There have been 223 deaths. 

Thirty-two of the new cases were in Burlington, which has seen 4,364 total. 

There have been 301,791 vaccine doses administered, of which 266,599 went to Halton residents. 

Six Nations

Six Nations of the Grand River has one active case. There have been 526 cases overall and 514 were resolved. Eleven people have died. 

There have been 19 B117 variant cases, which was first detected in the U.K., and two B1351 variant cases, which was first detected in South Africa. 

Thirty-nine other cases have screen positive as a variant, but have yet to be confirmed. 

Six Nations is in alert level black of its colour-coded framework.