New COVID-19 cases in Ontario ranged between a low of 945 and a high of 1,489 this week.
Thursday's 945 cases was the lowest number of new cases recorded since October.
This week, the Ontario government announced it was extending its stay-at-home order for 28 public health regions, including Algoma Public Health, across the province until Feb. 16.
The state of emergency expired on Tuesday.
The province has adjusted the framework of the provincewide shutdown in order to allow businesses that have been deemed non-essential to re-open. Read more about which regions will fall into which framework here.
Dr. David Williams said people should not take the gradual reopening as a sign that all public health rules will lift. Residents will still be asked to stay at home as much as possible and strictly adhere to masking and physical distancing, he said.
Algoma Public Health to enter yellow zone of reopening framework starting Tuesday
Starting Tuesday at 12:01 a.m., Algoma Public Health will move into the yellow - protect zone of Ontario's reopening framework.
APH joins three other health units, Grey Bruce Health Unit, Northwestern Health Unit, and Peterborough Public Health, in the yellow zone.
According to the province, the yellow zone focuses on 'strengthened measures, enhanced targeted enforcement, fines, and enhanced education to limit further transmission of COVID-19. Public health measures will be applied in 'high risk settings,' the province says.
Learn more about what will be permitted to open here.
Algoma Public Health reports 15 new COVID-19 cases this week
Algoma Public Health has not reported any new COVID-19 cases today.
However, throughout the week, APH reported a total of 15 new cases in the area.
On Thursday, the health unit reported a 'community cluster' at an Elliot Lake multi-unit dwelling. APH says seven cases have been associated with the Warsaw Place address.
Algoma District School Board has also confirmed a second case at Blind River Public School last weekend.
Here are the latest COVID-19 numbers from Algoma Public Health, updated at 1:30 p.m. today:
- 90,802 tested
- 190 confirmed
- 21 active case
- 2 currently hospitalized
- 169 resolved
- 2 deceased
There are no active cases in non-Algoma residents temporarily in the region.
There is currently one active outbreak at an area institution at the F.J. Davey Home. It was declared on Jan. 29.
According to data on howsmyflattening.ca, a University of Toronto-led website which collects and analyzes data from Ontario's COVID-19 cases, 61 per cent of ICU beds in Algoma Public Health's jurisdiction are currently occupied. None of the ICU beds are currently occupied by COVID-19 patients.
The data also describes the community risk level for COVID-19 in our region as 'low.'
Total confirmed cases by area of residence:
- 146 in Sault Ste. Marie and area, with evidence of community spread
- 33 in central and east Algoma
- 9 in Elliot Lake and area
- 2 in north Algoma
Comparatively, in Chippewa County, which covers Sault Ste. Marie Mich. and surrounding area, the COVID-19 data as of Tuesday states:
- 1,718 cumulative positives
- 1,594 cumulative recovered
- 24 deaths
- 1 cases currently hospitalized
As of Monday, you will need to show a negative COVID-19 test to cross the land border into Canada
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau says starting next week, anyone arriving in Canada by land will also need to show a recent negative COVID-19 test.
Trudeau says the new measure will kick in Feb. 15, the latest move to keep COVID-19 from spreading within Canada from people who travelled outside it.
The government began requiring all people arriving in Canada by air to show a negative PCR-based COVID-19 test in early January.
But more people are coming into the country in a vehicle than on an airplane.
The latest statistics from the Canada Border Services Agency show that since the end of March 2.9 million people, excluding truck drivers, entered through a land border crossing, while 2.4 million arrived by airplane.
Read more on the upcoming federal measures here.
The feds also released the criteria for quarantine hotels. You can read more on that here.
March Break gets postponed until April
In response to concerns surrounding the spread of COVID-19 and its variants, Education Minister Stephen Lecce announced on Thursday that March Break has been postponed until the week of April 12.
Teachers union representatives are expressing disappointment over the provincial government’s decision, citing concern for the mental health of education workers.
Local school boards say they are grateful the break was postponed and not cancelled all-together.
Ontario Northland cutting bus routes from Sudbury to Toronto
Ontario Northland is reducing select northern Ontario routes to Toronto, including routes out of Sudbury.
Communications manager for ONR says it is a temporary reduction in response to a decline in ridership and as further support for the current provincial stay-at-home order.
This comes as members of the Ontario Health Coalition (OHC) urge Ontarians not to travel outside their regions, largely citing March Break concerns.
Searchmont won't reopen this season
Searchmont Resort announced on Monday that it won't be opening at all this season because of the ongoing pandemic.
The ski hill said it will continue with planned infrastructure projects for next season.
Meanwhile, Greater Sudbury has not yet decided whether to open its ski hills. The city says it is still evaluating the details of the reopening announcement. In Elliot Lake, the Mt. Dufour ski hill is expected to open over the next week.
The latest on vaccine procurement in Canada
The prime minister said this week that Canada is "still very much on track for tens of millions of doses [of Pfizer] into the spring."
He said doses will continue to arrive and at a faster pace as production ramps up. Trudeau said Canada is expecting a “major” increase in vaccine shipments starting next week, with “hundreds of thousands of more doses arriving each week and that’s just from Pfizer.”
He also touched on the fact that other COVID-19 vaccines are working their way through the approval process with Health Canada.
Some good news for Ontario, Premier Doug Ford says his government has completed the first round of COVID-19 vaccinations in all of its long-term care homes. The province had committed to vaccinating every eligible long-term care resident who wanted a shot by Wednesday.
Upper Peninsula has some of the highest COVID-19 vaccination rates in Michigan
The Upper Peninsula is among the leaders in immunization rates within the state of Michigan, where 12 per cent of those 16 years of age and up have received at least one dose of the COVID-19 vaccine.
Across the river from Sault Ste. Marie, Ont., a total of 7,075 doses have been distributed in Chippewa County (4,875 Pfizer, 2,200 Moderna), with 6,993 doses administered as of Feb.4.
Read more from SooToday's James Hopkin here.
Airport boss calls for government intervention to aid airport recovery
Passenger levels at the Sault Ste. Marie Airport remain at record lows as the facility continues to grapple with travel restrictions brought on by the coronavirus pandemic.
In January, passenger traffic was down 89.3 per cent from the previous year and down 89.8 per cent for the fiscal year between April 2020 and January 2021.
“A strong system of airports is essential to supporting recovery from COVID-19 for our travel and tourism sector, as well as our trade-based regional and national economies,” Terry Bos, the Sault Ste. Marie Airport Development Corporation's president and CEO, said in a news release issued on Tuesday.
Local business owners concerned with lockdown measures
Local business owners whose doors remain closed due to the current COVID-19 pandemic are concerned not only about loss of income, but about what many are calling an unfair set of lockdown rules.
Read more from area tattoo artist, hairstylists here.
Meanwhile, the Ontario Chamber of Commerce has said the province's business reopening plan could create 'confusion.' Announced on Monday, the plan states if COVID infection rates trenf positively, non-essential stores could reopen doors to limited capacity by Tuesday.
The Chamber says it is concerned that new rules around re-opening aren't aligned with stay-at-home orders in certain regions of the province.
Locally, the Sault Ste. Marie Chamber of Commerce is concerned that area businesses cannot handle another shutdown.
Chamber CEO Rory Ring also said on that a technical glitch resulted in the automatic disqualification of a number of provincial grant applications surrounding COVID-19 funding.
Ring said no local businesses struggling under the weight of lost income due to the lockdown went out of business because of the glitch.
Some surgeries canceled at Sudbury's Health Sciences North because of COVID-19 outbreak
Health Sciences North has decided to slow down its surgery schedule as a result of the COVID-19 outbreak that was declared at the hospital on the weekend.
Public Health is actively working with the hospital to investigate the outbreak and ensure patients and staff are protected. Currently, the outbreak has been contained and there is no evidence of ongoing transmission, the hospital said.
Employment on the rise, but not yet up to pre-pandemic levels, report says
The Sault's unemployment rate has improved over the last three months, according to a report by the Algoma Workforce Investment Corporation (AWIC).
It sat at a high of 11.1 per cent in July, after having climbed significantly in March due to COVID-19.
Read more on the report here.
Ontario records first case of virus variant that first emerged in Brazil
Ontario's first case of a highly transmissible COVID-19 variant that originated in Brazil was discovered in Toronto on Sunday.
The patient, who is now hospitalized, had recently returned from travelling in Brazil, Toronto Public Health said in a news release.
Long-term care commission hears that Ontario's infection prevention team was sidelined due to politics
Dr. Gary Garber, the former medical director of infection prevention and control at Public Health Ontario, testified last week before the independent long-term care commission that his department was asked to maintain a "low profile" in order to avoid being "subsumed" by the newly created Ontario Health.
In March, when a growing number of long-term care homes in the province were reporting COVID-19 outbreaks, Garber said 25 to 30 highly trained experts from Public Health Ontario watched from the sidelines.
Province extends off-peak electricity rates during stay-at-home order
The provincial government has extended the electricity rate relief initiative that was set to expire on Wednesday.
Households, small businesses, and farms that are normally billed rates set by the Ontario Energy Board will continue to be billed off-peak rates until Feb, 22, 2021.
MPP Randy Hillier defies COVID-19 guidelines again, despite stay-at-home order
Independent MPP Randy Hillier has once again taken to social media highlighting defiance of provincial guidelines related to COVID-19.
Hillier posted another photo on Twitter on Sunday of a large gathering, while criticizing the stay-at-home orders.
See the photo and more on Hillier here.
Pandemic washes away another cruise ship year
While there is no national ban on small cruise ships carrying 100 or fewer people, the Great Lakes Cruise Association says it cannot economically operate any of its fleet with undr 100 guests and crew onboard.
The coalition is hopeful for 2022 and beyond.
Air Canada to temporarily cut at least 1,500 jobs, suspend 17 foreign routes due to COVID
Air Canada will temporarily suspend service on 17 routes to the U.S. and other international destinations until at least April 30.
The route suspensions in the U.S. include flights to New York, Boston, Washington, D.C., Seattle, Denver and Fort Myers, Air Canada said. The earliest flight suspensions to the U.S. will go into effect Feb. 14.
The company said Air Canada is also suspending flights to Bogota from Montreal, London and Tokyo from Vancouver, and Bogota, Dublin and Sao Paulo from Toronto, among other routes.
How you can celebrate Ash Wednesday this year
The Roman Catholic Bishop of the Diocese of Sault Ste. Marie, Thomas Dowd, is inviting Catholics across Northern Ontario to celebrate Ash Wednesday this year, regardless if churches are permitted to reopen in time.
With churches hoping to reopen next week in time for this celebration, there are still capacity restrictions in place and parishioners who are hesitant to return right away.
Learn more about your options to celebrate here.
