COVID-19 numbers from Pickering to Uxbridge stabilized but showing no signs of going away soon

Are we finally free from COVID-19? Am emphatic NO! Are we almost out of the proverbial woods? Maybe yes, maybe it’s hard to tell.

The underlying viral numbers are mostly up this week, but only marginally so it’s probably safer to say we are stabilized right now. The number of new cases of COVID has gone up from 372 to 379, the per cent positivity rate has jumped from 11.9 per cent to 13 per cent and the weekly incidence rate has risen slightly to 51.7 (per 100,000 population) from 50.7.

Hospitalization numbers are exactly the same at 52, with three in ICU for the week of October 23-29 vs two the previous period, and the number of outbreaks at local institutions (hospitals, long term care and retirement centres) has dropped from 22 to 21, with the number of outbreaks at Durham hospitals falling from four to just one.

There were two deaths last week (versus one the previous week) bringing the total number of deaths in Durham Region since the pandemic was declared to 518.