Hamilton sees record high number of new daily COVID-19 cases
Dr. Richardson says city will likely be placed in the yellow zone of Ontario's new pandemic system
Hamilton recorded its highest-ever number of new daily COVID-19 cases on Wednesday.
Dr. Elizabeth Richardson, the city's medical officer of health, told Hamilton's General Issues Committee that 68 cases were being reported. However, a spokesperson for public health later confirmed the correct number of new cases is actually 65.
That figure was reflected in an update on the city's website Wednesday afternoon.
The record-breaking number for a single day comes after just two cases were reported Tuesday and 43 on Monday.
Richardson told councillors staff had a "challenge" over the last few days with processing data, adding the case numbers average out to roughly 20 to 30 new cases per day.
Hamilton has seen 1,936 cases of COVID-19 throughout the pandemic.
Of those, 221 were active Wednesday, while 1,667 were resolved.
Statistics on the city's website show 167 people have been hospitalized and 48 have died.
Hamilton to sit in yellow risk zone
She also said based on the city's current COVID-19 case count, Hamilton will likely end up in the yellow zone of Ontario's new, colour-coded pandemic framework.
That aligns with what Premier Doug Ford said Tuesday when announcing the new system.
The premier said Hamilton, Brant and Halton will be placed in yellow, which means some additional protective measures like limits to when businesses can sell alcohol and caps on the number of people sitting together.
Haldimand, Niagara and Norfolk are in the green zone, which emphasizes preventing spread.
The provincial guide has five tiers — green, yellow, orange, red, grey — that rank public health units from low risk to high risk to a total lockdown based on the weekly rate of new cases, outbreaks, community spread, hospital capacity, among other factors.
Some doctors and other public health experts have expressed concern the threshold for tightening restrictions in the hardest-hit areas is set too high.
While local hospitals are at or exceeding capacity, Richardson told councillors Wednesday that contact tracing has improved recently and most outbreaks have been small, justifying positioning in the yellow zone.
"You stay in that zone for 28 days. You can always go up, so if things got worse, they are reviewing the data weekly," she said.
"We're not going to get ramped down until we see things are resolving and improving and being reduced."
Paul Johnson, director of the city's emergency operations centre, also reminded the public Remembrance Day service will take place online.
New cases of COVID-19 at Hamilton schools
The number of schools within the HWCDSB with confirmed cases of COVID-19 currently stands at eight with one new case involving a student at St. David Catholic Elementary School.
At HWDSB, one new case involving a student has been reported at Orchard Park Secondary School.
Brant
The Brant County Health Unit reports 66 people have COVID-19 as of Wednesday, four more than the number cases reported on Tuesday.
The total number of confirmed cases stands at 305.
Four people with the virus are in hospital.
Five people have died and 234 cases are resolved.
Haldimand-Norfolk
Twenty-six people in Haldimand and Norfolk counties have COVID-19 as of Wednesday, according to local public health officials.
The Haldimand-Norfolk Health Unit website shows there have been 552 confirmed cases during the pandemic, with 489 people recovered.
Thirty-two deaths in the area are considered to be related to COVID-19.
Halton
Public health reports 283 people in the Halton Region are infected, with 2,322 infections since the pandemic started.
Thirty-six people have died, with 2,003 cases resolved.
Statistics on the Halton website show there are 53 active cases in Burlington.
Niagara
There are 199 people with COVID-19 in the Niagara region Wednesday, according to public health.
COVID-19 has infected 1,540 people, which is 20 more cases than on Tuesday.
Seventy-four people have died and 1,267 cases have been resolved.
Six Nations
A COVID-19 update for Six Nations of the Grand River showed seven active cases as of Tuesday.
There have been 93 cases of the virus on Six Nations territory, including 87 that are resolved.
One person has died.
Read about Ontario's new criteria for imposing COVID-19 restrictions in public health units:
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