Has Hamilton hit the third wave plateau? We'll find out next week, medical officer of health says

Dr. Elizabeth Richardson, the medical officer of health for Hamilton, says data issues mean daily counts of COVID-19 cases reported on the city's website have been lagging behind. 

While the province fixes matters on its end, she said, city staff have been inputting the data in manually. They found 40 to 60 per cent of cases weren't getting loaded properly. 

"This is a difficult time to not have absolute clarity," she said in a general issues committee on Wednesday. 

Richardson said Hamilton was one of a couple communities to have a backup system in place. Some data may be a day or two behind, she said. 

It's anticipated everything will be fixed by next week. 

149 new cases on Wednesday

Then it will become clear "over the next week or so" if the city is at the plateau of the third wave.

"We're certainly very hopeful that between the stay-at-home measures and the vaccination program that we are at that point and that the numbers will come down," she said.   

Hamilton reported 149 new COVID-19 cases on Wednesday. Richardson said there are about 180 new cases per 100,000 people being reported a week. 

Three more people have died as linked to the virus. They were in their 80s, 70s, and 60s.

Hamilton has seen 17,693 cases of the virus, of which 1,266 cases are active and just over 89 per cent are resolved. 

The city is averaging at 156 new cases a day, which is slightly higher than the statistic reported yesterday. 

Outbreaks in Hamilton

A second person has died as linked to the Hamilton General Hospital Unit 4W outbreak. One person connected with the Juravinski Hospital Unit F4 outbreak has also died.

St. Joseph's Healthcare Hamilton is treating 48 people with COVID-19 and Hamilton Health Sciences (HHS) is treating 103. There are 49 patients with COVID-19 in the ICU of HHS. 

Richardson said Hamilton continues to see outbreaks with case counts in the 30s or 40s. 

The Rebecca St. Towers outbreak declared by public health on Tuesday is at a total of 67 total cases recorded since mid-March. Sixty-six of those have been residents and one is a staff member. One person has died. 

Public health said on Wednesday that there were 38 active cases.

Richardson said the 17-storey apartment is only residential tower to have an outbreak declared in Hamilton. But she added that there may have been smaller ones in apartment buildings that the city couldn't detect with their systems. 

"You can imagine how difficult it is to notice on an address basis versus an organizational basis," she said. 

Richardson said there seemed to be "caring of one another" and socialization in the building that led to the spread of the virus. The building was "well looked after" from the standpoint of maintenance, she said. 

She said they're reminding people to follow rules of only gathering with those in your household. If you're lending support to others, like helping with groceries, people should maintain distance and wear a mask.

The outbreak at National Steel Car, located at 600 Kenilworth Ave. N., has grown by one case to a total of 33 staff infected. 

There are three new outbreaks, including CritiCall Ontario, Rygiel Supports for Community Living South Mountain location, and St. Thomas More Children's Centre. 

The following outbreaks have been declared as over:

• Air Wise Sales Inc. with 20 cases. 
• Sunshine Daycare with 15 cases. 
• Blackadar Continuing Care with three cases. 
• ArcelorMittal Dofasco Tin Mill with six cases. 
• CHCH TV Hamilton with two cases. 

Brant

Brant has reported another 29 new cases for 2,811 seen during the pandemic overall. Of these, 163 are active and 2,630 are resolved, according to online data.

Three more people have died, bringing deaths in Brant to 20. Fourteen people are in hospital with COVID-19. 

There have been 54,846 doses of the vaccine administered. 

Haldimand-Norfolk

The counties of Haldimand and Norfolk have reported a combined 2,379 cases throughout the pandemic. Of these, 253 cases are active and 2,080 people have recovered. 

Forty-one deaths are considered COVID-related.  

There have been 40,922 doses of the vaccine administered.

Niagara

Niagara reported 123 new cases on Wednesday. The region has seen 14,367 cases through the pandemic, including 2,055 cases that are active and 11,917 resolved. 

There have been 395 people who have died.

There have been 191,097 doses of the vaccine administered to Niagara residents.

Halton

Halton reported 123 new COVID-19 cases for a total of 15,705 cases reported during the pandemic. 

One more person has died, bringing deaths to 214. There have been 14,644 people who have recovered. 

Forty new cases were in Burlington. The city has 253 active cases and has seen 53 deaths. 

There have been 4,151 cases in Halton that were a COVID-19 variant. 

Six Nations

Six Nations of the Grand River has 31 active cases. There have been 516 cases overall and 474 are resolved. Eleven people have died. 

There have been 17 B117 cases and 32 more cases that screened positive as a variant of concern. 

One person is in hospital. 

Six Nations is in alert level black of its colour-coded framework.