Officials hopeful Hamilton can enter Stage 2 next week as province OKs 'social circles'

Health officials in Hamilton are hopeful the city will be able to enter Stage 2 of the province's reopening plan next week, but the next few days are crucial.

That's especially true this weekend as the province has given the green light for Ontarians to begin building "social circles" of up to 10 people that can include family and friends.

"This is the group of people with whom you're going to let the guard down, go back to giving people hugs, go back to that closer interaction we would all love to have," explained Dr. Elizabeth Richardson, Hamilton's medical officer of health.

The "bubbles" need to be stable, the list of people involved can't change every day, she stressed. The province says you can only be part of one circle.

Circles start with those in the same household and can expand to include friends, caregivers or other family members.

"It really needs to be an agreement amongst that group," said Richardson, noting it's ultimately up to people to decide if they want to include all 10 or stick to something smaller as they may have people vulnerable to the virus in their life.

Keeping a tight circle will also help with contact tracing if someone involved were to become sick, the doctor added.

"It's a way of balancing limiting the transmission, doing quick follow up if somebody was to become sick, while recognizing the imprint things we all need as human beings."

Public health officials reported a total of 755 cases as Friday morning, four more than the day before. Of those 748 are confirmed, seven probable and 598 (79 per cent) resolved.

Richardson said the numbers have only increased by four or five cases over the past few days and all of Hamilton's outbreaks have been declared over, something she said could point to good news Monday when the province reevaluates which areas can begin to reopen.

"There is a bit of reading the tea leaves in terms of where we're going," she said, explaining the whole week's worth of data will be considered so the next few days could make a big difference.

"We're hoping, fingers crossed. Hamilton has done a great job in terms of controlling the spread of disease."

City shares map of COVID cases

Officials also released an interactive map of COVID-19 cases on its website Friday, which will allow people to view how the virus has impacted different parts of the city by census tract.

It's the first time the location of COVID-19 cases in Hamilton have been made public since the virus appeared in the area in March.

"There aren't any particular hot spots or clusters in the city and from a geographic perspective," said Richardson, who pointed out the city has begun collecting race-based and socioeconomic data and will be analyzing it as well.

She said outbreaks at long-term care and residential homes will show as a higher case-count than some areas and noted healthcare workers also see an increased rate because they're at higher-risk of transmission.

A breakdown of the confirmed cases among health-care workers as of Wednesday that was provided to CBC shows personal support workers and nurses account for nearly 60 per cent of the 180 cases.

Of those cases, nearly 90 per cent (51 of 57) are nurses and 85 per cent (41 of 48) of the people infected were women.

In fact, woman made up roughly 82 per cent of the total number of cases. 

Niagara

No new cases of COVID-19 were reported in the Niagara Friday, meaning the region held steady a total of 722 cases.

The number of active cases dropped by to 81, with two adding to the resolved tally that rose to 580. 

Sixty-one people in the region have died of the virus and two institutional outbreaks are ongoing.

Haldimand-Norfolk

Six more confirmed cases of COVID-19 were seen in Haldimand and Norfolk counties, bringing the total there to 412.

Thirty-one people have died, according to statistics for the area, while 141 cases are recovered.

Halton

Five more people in the Halton Region have recovered from COVID-19 as of Friday for a total of 651.

The area overall case count also rose by six to 767. Ninety-one cases are still active and twenty-five people have died of the virus.

Three of the new cases were in Burlington, which has seen 153 during the course of the pandemic.

Of those, 24 are active, while 122 are resolved. Seven people in the city have died.

Brant

The total number of confirmed COVID-19 cases in Brantford/Brant remained at 117, statistics show.

The number or resolved cases also remained steady at 106. Four people from the county have died of the virus.