COVID-19: 8 new cases in Peterborough area, presumed variants surpass 200

Eight new COVID-19 cases were reported in the Peterborough area on Thursday, according to the region’s health unit.

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There are also another eight presumed variant of concern cases for a total of 206, up from 198 reported 24 hours earlier. The first confirmed variant of concern was reported on Feb. 23. A presumed variant is defined as having tested positive for a mutation, but it requires further genomic sequencing to determine its specific strain, the health unit notes. Testing at the Public Health Ontario labs generally takes seven to 14 days. Once a strain is identified, it is then placed on the tracker’s confirmed case list.

Of the health unit’s 879 cases, 814 are now declared resolved (one more since Wednesday)  — approximately 93 per cent. Four cases from previous days were removed from the database.

There remain four active outbreaks in the city:

• Two workplace outbreaks — Declared on March 31, locations not specified by the health unit. On Thursday officials said both places had “fewer than 10” individuals. Ontario’s COVID outbreak database lists one case under congregate care and another under education.
• Gzowski College student residence at Trent University: Declared March 19.
• Empress Gardens Retirement Residence — Declared March 22 after one employee tested positive.

Since the pandemic was declared, the health unit has dealt with 200 COVID-19 cases (two more since Wednesday) associated with 32 outbreaks.

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Vaccination clinics/COVID-19 testing

Sign up for notification of vaccination clinics online.

The health unit plans to start to open appointments for residents born in 1951 (age 70) or earlier starting this week, once more of the area’s older residents have been immunized.

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