WELLINGTON COUNTY – Active COVID-19 cases in the Wellington-Dufferin-Guelph Public Health (WDGPH) region have dropped significantly over the last week, but another Wellington County resident has died with the virus.
Public health spokesperson Dany Williamson said the latest death – a 107-year-old man who died on Jan. 30 – was related to an outbreak at Palmerston and District Hospital.
It is Wellington County’s 18th COVID-related death and the 16th in the last three months.
Officials announced on Jan. 28 there were four patient cases and one staff case at the Palmerston hospital.
Three days later the outbreak – the first at a hospital within Wellington County – had grown to six patients and two staff.
A Feb. 1 update from WDGPH indicates there were 98 new cases in the region over the weekend (Jan. 29 to 31). It is the first time since Nov. 30 that weekend cases totalled less than 100.
Active cases in the region are now at 386, which represents a 21% drop since the figure reached a high of 489 three weeks ago (Jan. 11).
Several regional COVID-19 indicators continue to trend in the right direction.
WDGPH’s latest case rate per 100,000 population is 91.6 and its test positivity rate is 3.8%. Just one week ago those rates were 113.6 and 4.2% respectively – and three weeks ago they were 149.2.6 and 5.9%.
The trend has been even more dramatic in Wellington County, which reported 11 new cases over the weekend and now has 71 active cases.
Just one week ago (Jan. 25), the county had 44 new weekend cases and a record-high 112 active cases.
Five people are currently hospitalized with the virus in Wellington.
The county’s seven-day average for daily cases, which is often used to indicate trends, is now 5.71, down significantly from 11.29 one week ago.
There are currently 21 active cases in Dufferin County and 272 in Guelph.
Active case counts by municipality are included in the table below.
Municipality-specific active COVID-19 cases counts as of Feb. 1, 2021. (WDGPH image)
Outbreaks
There are currently 11 facility outbreaks in the WDGPH region, including three in Wellington County:
- Wellington Terrace Long-Term Care in Aboyne, 12 staff, declared on Dec. 12;
- Caressant Care Arthur (long-term care), 56 residents (10 deaths) and 54 staff, declared on Dec. 26; and
- Palmerston and District Hospital, six residents (one death) and four staff, declared on Jan. 28.
On Jan. 29 an outbreak was declared over at Morriston Park (long-term care) in Puslinch (one staff case, declared on Jan. 15).
