Hamilton to see 'rock bottom' in COVID-19 cases, but another uptick could come: expert

Hamilton is poised to hit "rock bottom" and no new COVID-19 cases soon, but it could be followed by another uptick according toa top health official at Hamilton Health Sciences (HHS).

Dr. Dominik Mertz, HHSmedical director of infection prevention control, analyzed COVID-19 statistics during a town hall meeting Thursday.

"When you're looking at the modelling for the city, it looks like we will probably be hitting rock bottom with our current case numbers," he said.

He said the city will either continue to maintain its levels or the numbers could creep up again.

Mertz said the worst case scenariois 40 new casesper day, which would translate into one or two new hospital admissions daily over the next few months. The peak of the third wave had roughly 200 new cases per day and the peak of the second wave had some 160 new cases per day.

Ontario is dealing with variants of COVID-19 that are better at infecting people, but recently relieved pandemic restrictions as infection ratescontinue to drop.

Hamilton reported nine new cases on Sunday and the weekly average of cases is 10 per day. Those numbers haven't been seen since last summer, when long-term care homes were battling deadlyoutbreaks.

There are 28 people in hospital with the virusand 15 in the intensive care unit (ICU).Mertz said the number of people in hospital mirrors what was seen in June 2020, but now there's a higher proportion of people in the ICU.

There are 96 active cases in the city and no active outbreaks.

Four hundred people who had COVID-19 have died since the pandemic started. There have also been 21,311 cases and 95.4 per cent of them are resolved.

The city says more 555,404 doses have been administered. Public health reports 72.7 per cent of people12 and up have received one dose of vaccine and 35.9 per cent are fully vaccinated.

Brant

The county of Brant has seven active cases of COVID-19, according to local public health.

There were two new cases reported on Sunday and there is one person with the virus in hospital.

There are no active outbreaks in the area.

Seventy-two per cent of locals 18 and older have received one dose of vaccine.

To date, there have been 3,404 confirmed cases and 20 deaths.

Haldimand and Norfolk

Haldimand and Norfolk counties reported14 active cases and no outbreaks.

There have been 2,709 cases since the pandemic started and 47 deaths connected to COVID-19.

The counties say 83.2 per cent of the population has received at least one dose of vaccine.

Halton

Halton region reported 23 new cases on Sunday. It has seen 18,001 cases and 229 deaths.

Burlington reported 15 new cases and 37 active infections.

It is also dealing with an outbreak atThe Village Of Tansley Woods.There are 16 cases as of Sunday.

Haltonsays 593,383 doses have been handed out in the region.

Niagara

Niagara is reporting sevennew cases and 121 active cases ofCOVID-19 on Sunday.

The region has seen 16,248 cases and 415 deaths.

There are no outbreaks in the area.

Roughly 66.5 per cent of residents have received their first vaccine shot.

Six Nations

Six Nations of the Grand River is reporting no active COVID-19 cases,but 12 people are in self-isolation.

There have been 527 cases and 11 deaths in the territory.

Some 38 per cent of the population has received a first dose.