30 new cases of COVID-19 reported in Thunder Bay District after weekend spike

Thirty new cases of COVID-19 have been reported in the Thunder Bay District.

The Thunder Bay District Health Unit announced the latest positive tests on Monday, following a three-day period with 199 cases.

The health unit had announced 111 cases on Sunday, but said 70 of those were the result of issues with a provincial database that should have been included in reports over the previous two days.

There are 462 active cases in the Thunder Bay District on Monday, which is a slight drop from the day before with 37 cases now considered resolved.

The health unit also reported one COVID-19 related death, which is the 33rd in the Thunder Bay District.

The Thunder Bay Regional Health Sciences Centre had 51 patients hospitalized who have tested positive for COVID-19, with 14 of them in the intensive care unit. In a news release, hospital officials said surgical services will be limited to outpatient and emergent inpatient procedures to preserve capacity.

For the new cases on Monday, 27 are located in Thunder Bay and the surrounding area with the other three in First Nations communities. Twenty-two are close contacts of existing cases, two had no known exposure and the other six remain under public health investigation.

The first eight days of March have had 412 announced cases.

Over the weekend, the health unit declared a COVID-19 outbreak at the Nanabijou Childcare Centre. Under provincial guidelines, an outbreak is declared in a child care setting when there are two or more cases that can be linked within the facility. The health unit on Sunday said an additional individual has tested positive, who is believed to have acquired the infection within the setting.

Outbreaks that had been declared at Westgate Collegiate and Vocational Institute, as well as St. James and Woodcrest public schools are now over. Schools in the Thunder Bay area are starting their second week of virtual learning after the health unit recommended school boards to pause in-person learning for a two-week period.