WELLINGTON COUNTY – There are 23 new cases of COVID-19 in the Wellington-Dufferin-Guelph Public Health (WDGPH) region on Sept. 21.
The new cases bring the total number of active cases in the region to 52, including one in hospital.
In Wellington County there was one new case on Sept. 21 and four active cases in total.
The county has had 97 cases overall and two deaths since the outset of the pandemic.
Guelph was reporting 13 new cases on Sept. 21 and 33 total active cases, with one hospitalization. Overall there has been 298 cases in the city and 11 deaths.
Dufferin County had eight new cases, for a total of 12 active cases. Dufferin has had 216 cases total, including 24 deaths.
Province-wide, there were 425 COVID-19 cases reported on Sept. 21, the highest daily count in over three months.
About two thirds of the new cases recently are in people under the age of 40.
While cases in the WDGPH region have not increased at the same rate as in other areas, local officials are reminding local residents to remain vigilant.
“Our region has done well, but as we see rising case numbers and the flu season about to begin, it is important we all take individual responsibility to keep businesses and schools open,” stated WDGPH medical officer of health Dr. Nicola Mercer.
In a Sept. 17 message on the public health website, Mercer stressed that while older adults are most at risk of serious illness or death, “Even healthy and younger people can develop serious illness from COVID-19.”
She recommended residents heed the following advice to stay safe:
- wear a face covering when indoors with people not from your own household or social circle;
- avoid large groups, especially indoors and where there is inadequate physical distancing (“high levels of virus can build up in air shared by large numbers of people if one or more of those people are infected”);
- meet with friends outdoors or, if an outdoor meeting is not practical, meet in a well-ventilated indoor room (with windows and doors open if weather allows) in small groups and wear masks;
- practise good hand hygiene;
- restrict close contacts to a small number of family and friends (a social circle can have up to 10 people, but no one should be part of more than one circle).
