COVID-19

The Northwestern Health Unit has reported 46 new COVID-19 cases have been found in the region, which is the most reported in one day since February 13, 2021, when 40 new cases were reported.

Twenty-six cases were found in the Kenora Health Hub, 8 in the Dryden Health Hub, the Fort Frances health Hub is reporting 6 new cases, two each in the Rainy River and Sioux Lookout Health Hubs, and one each both the Emo and Red Lake Health Hubs.

For 21 months now Northwestern Ontario has dealt with the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic from lockdowns, restrictions, vaccines, and everything in between.

Volunteers, and staff, of the Northwestern Health Unit and partnering health agencies have worked tirelessly to open up mass immunization clinics, administer vaccines, and keep up with the ongoing changes through the pandemic.

Dr. Kit Young Hoon, Medical Officer of Health for the NWHU expressed her gratitude of the hard work her staff has done through the pandemic at a media briefing on Tuesday.

The provincial government reported there were 61 new cases of COVID-19 in Saskatchewan Saturday, and 48 recoveries. This brought the number of active cases throughout Saskatchewan up to 562. 

The number of people in hospital receiving treatment for COVID-19 declined to 101, and 32 people were in intensive care. The number of hospitalizations due to COVID-19 is now the lowest since August 25th.  

As of Monday (December 20), those aged 12 to 17 years old will now have to show proof of their vaccination status to participate in organized sports at recreational facilities.

This new mandate was a part of many new measures announced on Dec 10, 2021, by Christine Elliott, Deputy Premier and Minister of Health.

Dr. Kit Young Hoon, Medical Officer of Health for the Northwestern Health Unit commented saying the new policy is there to protect all athletes involved in the sport.

The province is reporting 553 new cases of COVID-19 in the past 24 hours with a rising positivity rate of 5.7 per cent. 

Active cases have increased by 219 for a total of 4,431 in the province. 

Alberta is reporting another 54 cases of the Omicron variant bringing the total to 173. 

The good news is that hospitalizations and ICU admissions continue to drop with 344 in hospital and 68 in ICU.

Fortunately, the death toll remains unchanged at 3,286. 

Manitoba's top doctor and health minister say new health orders are necessary in light of climbing case numbers and concerns over the Omicron variant.

Almost 70 per cent of the positive COVID cases in Manitoba on Friday are in fully or partially vaccinated people. 

Another three Manitobans have died with COVID-19. Today's death toll includes:

Alberta's Omicron case count nearly doubled yesterday, jumping from 60 to 119.

Alberta's Chief Medical Officer of Health, Dr. Hinshaw took to Twitter to update Albertans. She attributes the significant jump to ramped-up testing across the province.

"Our lab has shifted to a quicker testing process for the Omicron variant which means that today we are reporting a large number of Omicron cases coming from several days all at once," explains Dr. Hinshaw.

UPDATE: 

As of early Friday afternoon, according to the Cochrane Community Health Centre, they are all out of COVID-19 rapid tests. They are recommending for residents to check back on Monday for hopefully a replenished supply. 

ORIGINAL STORY:

Just in time for Christmas and the quickly spreading Omicron variant, it was announced earlier this week that free rapid tests would be made available to use at home.

According to the AHS website, in Cochrane, you will be able to pick up a rapid test kit at the Cochrane Community Health Centre, at 60 Grande Blvd. 

The Northwestern Health Unit is reporting 24 new COVID-19 cases have been reported in the region. 

Of the new cases 12 cases were found in the Kenora Health Hub, 6 in the Sioux Lookout Health Hub, 3 in the Rainy River Health Hub, 2 in the Dryden Health Hub, and 1 in the Emo Health Hub.

Follow up with the persons involved and their contacts has started according to protocol. Anyone who is identified as a contact for these cases will be contacted directly.

The new cases found Friday, pushes the active case count in the region up to 81.