One new COVID case reported for Huntsville today

Today, the Simcoe Muskoka District Health Unit (SMDHU) reported a new COVID-19 case in Huntsville—a female 65-79 years old whose infection is under investigation.

Of the 70 confirmed COVID-19 cases in Huntsville to date, nine are active. None are currently in hospital in Huntsville. Two people have died from the disease in Huntsville, as well as a third person in Muskoka Lakes.

There have been 27 COVID-19 cases in Huntsville since Jan. 1. Fifty-five per cent of Huntsville’s cases to date (42) have occurred in the past three months of the pandemic. In Lake of Bays, there have been six cases in total, all of which are resolved.

There have been a total of 225 cases reported in Muskoka to date (24 of them currently active) and 6,300 in Simcoe County (496 active). (For a full list of Huntsville and Lake of Bays cases to date, and other COVID-19 updates for the area, visit our COVID-19 page.)

Simcoe Muskoka entered the province’s Grey-Lockdown zone on March 1, an “emergency brake” measure to slow the spread of COVID-19 variants of concern. Eight such cases have been identified in Muskoka. Simcoe Muskoka as a whole, as of March 2, has 191 cases that have tested positive for the UK B.1.1.7 COVID-19 variant of concern and another 325 cases that have screened positive for a variant of concern and are awaiting confirmatory testing. Simcoe Muskoka has the highest number of variants of concern in Ontario.

There is no indication when Simcoe Muskoka will be moved out of the Grey-Lockdown zone, though SMDHU medical officer of health Dr. Charles Gardner has said that it will depend on a decrease in variants of concern in the region.

For more COVID-19 information from the health unit, visit simcoemuskokahealth.org.