A very slight uptick in Chatham-Kent’s active COVID cases today. Public Health is reporting six new cases and 4 resolutions, raising the total active caseload to 32.
One local resident who had been battling the virus has now been released from hospital, but there are still four area COVID-positive patients at the Health Alliance. At last check, the hospital is also caring for four non-Chatham-Kent residents with symptoms.
To date, over 180 cases involving variants of concern or mutations have been identified in Chatham-Kent, although it’s not a number Medical Officer of Health Dr. David Colby is terribly concerned about.
“Really these kinds of figures that we have largely reflect the degree of testing that’s been undertaken, so we have to proceed as if we’re dealing with variants as we go along. Luckily the vaccines are very effective at preventing serious disease, hospitalization, and death even in those that have variants.”
Dr. Colby says at this point, variants are simply a fact of life in the pandemic, and have largely replaced the original strain of the virus in new cases.
