WELLINGTON COUNTY – Recently updated data shows hospitalizations and known active cases of COVID-19 are up this week in the Wellington-Dufferin-Guelph Public Health (WDGPH) region following last week’s decrease.
Active cases
There are 604 confirmed active cases throughout the health region as of April 27, a four per cent increase from 581 on April 19.
As of Wednesday, there were 136 known active cases in Wellington County, 105 in Dufferin County, and 336 in Guelph.
Provincial health officials admit limited access to COVID testing has resulted in an under-representation of how many active cases there truly are in the province.
Hospitalizations
As of April 24, there were 20 people testing positive for the virus who were admitted to WDGPH region hospitals, of which two were in an ICU.
That’s an increase from the 15 persons the Advertiser independently confirmed were hospitalized last week, when WDGPH data had not been updated.
Provincial context
Across the province, there were 262 unvaccinated persons hospitalized with COVID-19, of which 27 were in an ICU, as of April 26.
In contrast, 1,077 two-dose vaccinated persons were hospitalized across the province, of which 102 were in an ICU.
Considering the vast majority of Ontarians are vaccinated as of April 24 (86.8% with two doses according to the Ontario Science Table), there will be a larger representation of vaccinated persons in hospitals.
According to science table data, as of April 17, unvaccinated individuals are 1.6 times as likely to test positive for COVID-19, 3.4 times more likely to be hospitalized, and 4.7 times more likely to end up in an ICU than those who are vaccinated.
Less than half of the persons hospitalized in the province were admitted because of COVID-related reasons, regardless of vaccination status. Persons admitted for other reasons accounted for 55% of admissions.
COVID’s impact is more pronounced in the province’s ICUs, where 65% are admitted because of COVID-19 and 35% are admitted for other reasons.
Vaccinations
As of April 27, there are 258,888 people or 87.8% of the population aged five or older were vaccinated with two doses.
There are 156,416 (58% of the eligible population at least 12 years old) who have received a third dose as of Wednesday.
According to the province’s Advisory Science Table data, as of April 25, there were 295 new cases every day per million people in those unvaccinated compared to 177 cases per day in those with at least two doses.
The data concludes there’s a 40% reduction in the risk of contracting a case with two vaccine doses.
The reduction in the risk of being hospitalized with two doses is 71%.
Deaths
Across the health region, there have been 160 COVID-related deaths reported as of April 27 – unchanged from last week’s report.
Outbreaks
Two new facility-wide outbreaks have been declared at Eden House’s retirement and long-term care home on April 15 and 16, respectively.
A previously declared outbreak at Strathcona Long-Term Care in Mount Forest (18 residents, two staff) was declared over on April 23.
