1 new confirmed case of COVID-19 variant in Hamilton and 1 more outbreak with variant

Hamilton Public Health Services (HPHS)has confirmed a sixth COVID-19 variant of concern in the city on Sunday.

The local public health unit is reporting it as B117, the variant first seen in the U.K.

This comes as HPHS is waiting to confirm249 cases that screened positive as variants.

One week ago, the city had four confirmed variant cases and106 that screened positive, which shows the number of potential variant caseshas doubled.

The variants aresaid to spread easier and be more deadly.

HPHS has also detected a variant of concern within the outbreak atDHL Supply Chain.

There are three cases there, but it is unclear how many screened positive for the variant.

Hamilton's COVID-19 figures continue to slowly rise

Hamilton confirmed131 new cases this weekend,83of which came on Sunday.

The city'sCOVID-19 test positivity rate is at 2.9per cent (which means 2.9per cent of all COVID-19 tests in Hamilton are positive).

The local medical officer of health, Dr. Elizabeth Richardson, has previously said anything above three per cent impactsthe effectiveness of contact-tracing efforts.

There are509 active cases of COVID-19in the city and Hamilton's weekly rate of new cases per 100,000 people is growing, nowat 73.

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Virus variants may cause half of confirmed COVID-19 cases by late March, professor says

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Troy Day, a professor at Queen's University and a member of the province's science advisory table, says the fate of the COVID-19 pandemic may hinge on a race between variants of the virus and the speed of the vaccination campaign.

The city's reproduction number also grew from last week to1.15(which means, on average, a person with COVID-19 will infect one other person).

Roughly one in four people testing positive are in their 20s.

Since March 2020, a total of 11,241 people have been infected(confirmed and probable cases) and 295 people have died after contracting COVID-19.

Forty-eightpeople are in hospital with the virus. The total number of resolved casesstands at 10,262.

30 active outbreaks

There are 30 active outbreaks, two of which are new.

A staff member at theMission ServicesShelter overflow inEast Hamilton tested positive for the virus. There are also three cases atHamilton General Hospital inUnit 8 West (two patients and one worker). Neither outbreak has screened positive for variants of concern.

And other outbreakscontinue togrow.

The outbreak at the F3 unit inJuravinski Hospital grew from five patientcases to 14on Sunday. None of the cases involve variants.

DHLLogistics on Mount Hope grew from 12 staff cases to 14 on Sunday.

The outbreak at theGood Shephard Shelter set up in theCathedral Boys School is over after three clients tested positive for the virus with no cases of variants.

53,216 vaccines administered in Hamilton

As of the end of Thursday, public health says it has administered53,216 doses of vaccine, nearly 12,000 more since last week.

That includes13,387 at the mobile clinic,34,699 doses the Hamilton Health Sciences fixed clinic and5,130 at theSt. Joseph's Healthcare site.

Hamilton city officials are urging people eligible for the COVID-19 vaccineto use the province's online booking tool once it opens on Monday.

Brant's active cases double in 1 week

The county of Brant has 76 active cases according todata online Sunday.That's double the number last week.

There have been 1,604cases since March and 12 deaths.

There isone person hospitalized with COVID-19.

A total of 1,516cases have been marked as resolved.

There have been 14,965doses of the vaccine administered and 12 COVID-19 variants of concern detected.

Haldimand-Norfolk has 44 active cases

Haldimand and Norfolk counties arereportinga total of 44active cases of COVID-19 on Sunday.

There have been 1,502cases throughout the pandemic. Of those, 1,414are labelled asrecovered.

The local public health unit has linked the virus to 39 deaths.

There have been 12,157doses of the vaccine administered.

Haltonpasses10,000 COVID-19 cases

The number of COVID-19 cases in Halton rose by 43 on Sunday, for a total of10,043.

The data shows277of those cases are active.

Twelve of the new cases were in Burlington, which has seen 2,532cases of COVID-19 since the start of the pandemic. There are 61 active cases in the city.

A total of 198people across the region have died after being infected with the virus, 49 of them in Burlington.

The region is reporting 21 confirmed variants of concern, two of which are in Burlington.

Niagara has 33 new cases

Niagara is reporting 33 new cases of COVID-19 on Sunday.The region has seen8,924 cases over the course of the pandemic, including 260 that are active.

A total of 373deaths have been linked to the virus over the course of the pandemic.

Meanwhile, 8,291cases are marked as resolved.

There have been 13,250doses of the vaccine administered in Niagara.

Six Nations active cases drop

As of Friday,Six Nations of the Grand Riverhad 40 active COVID-19 cases, according toOhsweken Public Health.

That's three times lower than it was last week when there were 114 active cases.

It says there are four people in hospital. There have been 411 cases reported there over the course of the pandemic andfivedeaths.