Sudbury's health unit is reporting 30 new cases of COVID-19 for March 27. Public Health also said there are now 343 active cases being monitored. This is the highest ever number of local active cases.
Also, since the health unit began tracking COVID-19 cases just over one year ago, there have been 1,362 total COVID-19 cases confirmed locally.
PHSD also said 1,019 of those cases have been resolved, an increase of 12 over yesterday.
Public Health Sudbury reported Thursday evening that another local person has died from COVID-19, but no details were revealed. That is the 16th death associated with the pandemic in the region.
With respect to where the new cases might have occurred, the Public Health Sudbury and Districts (PHSD) daily update page reported that all 30 of the new cases were found to have occurred within the Greater Sudbury Area.
With respect to possible causes of the new cases, PHSD reported 10 new cases as close contact of a confirmed case. Seven new cases were associated with an outbreak, four new cases had no known epidemiological link, and nine cases were listed as under investigation.
PHSD also reports general demographics each day about the people who are becoming infected.
In terms of the gender of the new cases, 13 are in male patients, 13 in female and in four the gender was not specified.
Epidemiological data also shows that the majority of cases are persons in the 20 to 39 age category with 462 total cases (an increase of 10).
The next highest group number is 321 cases for the 40 to 59 age group (an increase of nine).
Next highest number is 304 cases for the 19 and under age group (an increase of four).
Seniors in the 60 to 79 age group amount to 167 cases total (an increase of three), and people aged 80 and over are currently the lowest category with 72 cases (an increase of one).
The numbers above may not completely correspond with the daily case count because PHSD does not always report changes on the day they occur.
In terms of testing, 210,876 tests have been performed in the PHSD region as of today, with 1,228 tests performed Friday.
In terms of vaccinations, as of 4 p.m. March 26, 24,228 people have received their first dose of vaccine, with 2,235 people now fully vaccinated.
Variants of concern
PHSD is also reporting there are still five cases of "confirmed" variants of the COVID-19 virus, no increase there.
There are, however, 377 cases that are "screened positive" for variants of concern, an increase of nine over the number reported for Friday.
PHSD said additional time is required to genetically-sequence the virus in a positive sample and confirm it as a COVID-19 variant of concern.
At Sudbury's Health Sciences North, as of March 26 (the latest data provided) there are 22 patients with confirmed cases of COVID-19 at the hospital. According to the HSN website, this included 11 COVID patients in the Intensive Care Unit (ICU).
There are 10 additional admitted patients currently being "investigated" for COVID-19, and awaiting test results. One of those patients is in the ICU at this time.
The outbreaks at Health Sciences North on the sixth and fourth floors of the South Tower have been declared over as of March 25. The outbreaks were announced March 12 and 13 respectively.
One designated care partner (no alternate) is now permitted on 4 South. Designated care partner restrictions remain in place on 6 South.
On the provincial COVID-19 register today, the Ontario government daily website reported 2,453 new confirmed COVID-19 cases across the province. Also today, the province reported 16 new deaths had occurred in the previous 24 hours.