Masks urged as COVID rises in Hamilton

Thestar.com
March 31, 2022

COVID-19 transmission is rising in Hamilton.

Every metric was increasing Wednesday on a new status report added to the city’s dashboard that will be updated weekly.

The report shows Hamilton is using wastewater to monitor COVID trends for the first time. It also notes the more transmissible sub-variant BA.2 is increasingly spreading locally.

In addition, Hamilton hospitals have seen the number of staff self isolating climb to 435 Wednesday from 292 just over a week ago.

“This is probably a good reflection of what is happening in our community in terms of new infections,” Rob MacIsaac, CEO of Hamilton Health Health Sciences, tweeted Monday. “This is good evidence for the idea to keep wearing masks, getting COVID booster shots and socializing outdoors instead of inside whenever feasible. If you’re sick, stay home.”

Public health also encouraged COVID measures like masking and physical distancing in light of the resurgence that was predicted as Ontario reopened. Scarsin Forecasting projected the majority of spring COVID cases could be prevented with careful behaviour.

The new status report shows the average daily new cases jumped in just over two weeks to 119 on Monday compared to 74 on March 13.

The average number of Hamiltonians hospitalized for COVID per day went up to 2.7 on March 27 from 1.6 on March 13. Hamilton hospitals were caring for 67 COVID patients Wednesday.

The viral signal for detecting COVID-19 in wastewater samples went up in Hamilton from March 18 to March 22. This data is in line with increases across the province reported by the Ontario COVID-19 Science Advisory Table.

The more transmissible BA.2 accounted for nearly 40 per cent of cases as of March 5, compared to just over 15 per cent on Feb. 26.

Demand for COVID tests went up to an average 237 a day on March 27, compared to 170 on March 20. Positive test results were at 16.5 per cent for the week of March 13 to 19, compared to 14.1 per cent the week before.

Hamilton has 15 ongoing outbreaks in high-risk settings, with three reporting one death each at 4 West at Hamilton General Hospital, Harbour North 1 at the West Fifth Campus of St. Joseph’s Healthcare and at St. Joseph’s Villa, where 45 have tested positive.